August 20, 2022

Lisa Friedman & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Fresh off signing expansive climate legislation, President Biden and his administration are planning a series of executive actions to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help keep the planet from warming to dangerous temperatures, senior White House officials said. Mr. Biden is on track to deploy a series of measures, including new regulations on emissions from vehicle tailpipes, power plants and oil and gas wells, the officials said. In pushing more executive action, Mr. Biden is trying to make up for the compromises his party made on climate measures to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes the largest single American investment to slow global warming." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Executive orders are no substitute for legislation because a future climate-change-denying wingnut president beholden to special interests can, with the stroke of a pen, undo them. But this is still a take-that-Joe-Manchin move. Anyhow, good for President Joe.

Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said at a roundtable Friday that Democrats were forced to narrow a key provision of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act because of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.... 'We had a senator from Arizona who basically didn't let us go as far as we needed to go with our negotiations and made us wait two years,' Manchin said in a video of the event that was viewed by NBC News. 'Those type of things -- I don't question anybody, everyone's responding to their own constituent base. But we did get something. And it's the first time we made a positive move in that.' The law allows Medicare to negotiate the cost of 10 drugs in 2026, a number that is slated to rise gradually in the years after. Many Democrats wanted to begin earlier and give the government broader power to negotiate prices with the industry." MB: Isn't it great that Manchin suddenly sees the downside to holding up a bill for a couple of years while you whittle away the beneficial provisions all your colleagues favor?

Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "The leaders of two House panels sent letters on Friday to eight social media companies demanding that they take 'immediate action' to address threats on their platforms toward federal law enforcement officials after a surge in right-wing calls for violence following the F.B.I.'s search of ... Donald J. Trump's home in Florida. In the letters, Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, and Stephen F. Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of its National Security Subcommittee, also expressed concern about 'reckless statements' from Mr. Trump and some Republican members of Congress. The statements have 'coincided with a spike in social media users calling for civil war and violence toward law enforcement,' they said. The letters were sent to mainstream platforms like Twitter, TikTok and Facebook's parent company, Meta, as well as right-wing social media sites like Gab, Gettr and Rumble. A letter also went to Truth Social, Mr. Trump's social media site, which erupted with calls for violence last week...." A CNBC story is here.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post points out that if Judge Bruce Reinhart does order the release of a redacted form the affidavit underlying the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, it won't satisfy Trump or his lemmings. "If this document is released, Trump and many of his supporters will seize on the redactions as 'evidence' that the 'real rationale' for the search is being covered up -- and that the entire process is irredeemably illegitimate.... [Trump] is all but certain to do all he can to ensure that [release of the affidavit] only escalates [his followers'] rage."

Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "White House officials have privately expressed deep concern over the tranche of classified material taken to ... Donald Trump's home in Florida, including some documents that are only meant to be viewed only in secure government facilities.... Current administration officials have become increasingly concerned about what Trump took and whether that information ... could potentially put the sources and methods of the US intelligence community at risk.... Asked Wednesday whether [President] Biden needs to be briefed on the national security implications, White House chief of staff Ron Klain insisted the President would maintain his distance [from the DOJ investigation].... Intelligence officials have also expressed concern about what Trump might have taken.... Intelligence community representatives have had discussions with the Justice Department, congressional intelligence committees, and the National Archives in recent months about potentially missing sensitive documents, [a] source said." ~~~

~~~ Rudy, however, is not concerned ~~~

~~~ Wherein Giuliani Admits Trump Stole Classified Documents. Andrew Feinberg of the Independent, republished in Yahoo! News: "Donald Trump's former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Thursday appeared to admit that Mr Trump had classified documents that are the property of the US government, during an appearance on the right-wing Newsmax television network. Mr Giuliani, who is currently facing disbarment for making false statements in the course of his representation of the ex-president during his push to overturn the 2020 election, was attempting to defend Mr Trump when he said the Espionage Act -- the law FBI agents said may have been violated when they asked for a warrant to search Mr Trump's home -- was 'really not about taking the documents.... It's about destroying them or hiding them or giving them to the enemy. It's not about taking them and putting them in a place that's roughly as safe as they were in in the first place,' he said.... Writing on Twitter, [national security law expert Bradley] Moss said: 'This is 100% false'. In fact, the section of the US criminal code referenced in the FBI's application for a search warrant ... makes it a crime for anyone 'entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document ... relating to the national defense' to '[permit] the same to be removed from its proper place of custody' with 'gross negligence'." MB: Because an unlocked basement closet at a Florida resort is "roughly as safe" as a SKIF. This throwing fake defenses at a wall the way some might toss ketchup to see if it sticks, is not going well for the Trumplodytes. See also Akhilleus' comment below. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Having a butler or usher cart classified from the Oval Office to the White House residence is part of Trump's "defense." It was, according to his defenders, SOP. Yet it strikes me that this "gross negligence" would include having someone without top-secret clearance tote the docs around the building. The same would be true for leaving the documents lying around the residence for Melanie & the maid to rifle through as Donald was fixing his hair (a 45-minute operation) or whatever. It would be worthwhile for the DOJ to find out exactly how this process worked & how the documents were (ha-ha) "secured" when they were being moved or left in the residence.

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday turned down a request by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to avoid testifying next week before a special grand jury investigating attempts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn his November 2020 election loss in Georgia. The order, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May, means that Mr. Graham, a South Carolina Republican and staunch Trump ally, is on track to appear in a closed-door session of the special grand jury on Tuesday at a downtown Atlanta courthouse. However, Mr. Graham already has taken his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which has the ability to step in to postpone his appearance. Judge May had earlier issued an order forcing the senator to give testimony, but Mr. Graham asked the judge to stay the order while he pursued his appeal in the case. On Friday, the judge wrote that 'the public interest would not be served' by granting a stay and delaying Mr. Graham's testimony." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have a feeling this judge finds it a bit irregular that a South Carolina senator would be calling the top Georgia elections official & asking him to figure out a way to throw out a slew of ballots.

Judges Determined to Reveal that Bill Barr Is a Big Fat Liar. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court has ordered the release of a secret Justice Department memo discussing whether ... Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The unanimous panel decision issued Friday echoes that of a lower court judge, Amy Berman Jackson, who last year accused the Justice Department of dishonesty in its justifications for keeping the memo hidden. The panel of three judges, led by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, said that whether or not there was 'bad faith,' the government 'created a misimpression' and could not stop release under the Freedom of Information Act. The memo was written by two senior Justice Department officials for then-attorney general William P. Barr, who subsequently told Congress that there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's inquiry.... 'The court's ... review of the memorandum revealed that the Department in fact never considered bringing a charge,' the [three-judge] panel wrote.” An AP story is here.

Senate Races 2022. Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "Republican Senate hopefuls are getting crushed on airwaves across the country while their national campaign fund is pulling ads and running low on cash -- leading some campaign advisers ... to demand an audit of the committee's finances, according to Republican strategists involved in the discussions.... The NRSC&'s retreat came after months of touting record fundraising..., according to Federal Election Commission disclosures. But the committee has burned through nearly all of it.... 'If they were a corporation, the CEO would be fired and investigated,' said a national Republican consultant.... The NRSC's chairman, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, has already taken heat from fellow Republicans for running ads featuring him on camera and releasing his own policy agenda that became a Democratic punching bag -- leading to jokes that 'NRSC' stood for 'National Rick Scott Committee' in a bid to fuel his own presumed presidential ambitions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In my little state, I've seen/heard maybe a hundred TV ads for the Democratic candidate for Senate. I truly have no if she even has a Republican challenger. Anyway, I'm quite un-sad & unsurprised that Rick Scott is mismanaging/stealing other people's money. It's what he does. ~~~

~~~ Trump Fever. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "GOP Senate candidates are underperforming in multiple states, as the homestretch of the midterms approaches.... [On Thursday, Mitch] McConnell said, 'Senate races are just different, they're statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.' Writing in Vanity Fair, Eric Lutz reported, "He didn't mention any of those candidates directly, but he almost certainly could have been talking about any of Donald Trump's handpicked contenders, who earned the former president's support seemingly for one of two reasons: He knows them from television, or they're loyalists who have organized their campaigns almost entirely around his 2020 election lies.... In reality, the Senate minority leader only has himself to blame for the rise of these dangerous weirdos.'... [In New York magazine, Jonathan Chait wrote,] '... The [GOP] Establishment is not worried about kooks being elected. It is worried about the kooks losing to Democrats.... And given that power is the only language Republicans seem to understand, the best hope defenders of democracy have is that the Republicans underperform in the midterm elections, and the party Establishment comes to regret its appeasement of Trump.'" (Both Vanity Fair & New York are subscriber-firewalled.)

House Races 2022. Trump Fever. Melanie Zanona of CNN: "The man in charge of the House GOP's campaign strategy has been doling out advice to Republican candidates and incumbents in key battleground races as they prepare for the general election: Don't be distracted by Donald Trump on the campaign trail, and instead focus on the issues Republicans believe will be most salient to voters in the midterms. The guidance from Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, relayed by three GOP sources familiar with the internal conversations, reflects a tacit acknowledgment among Republican leaders that the former president could knock the GOP's midterm messaging off course.... It also represents a shift from the strategy deployed in many Republican primaries, where embracing Trump -- or at least not alienating him and his base -- was seen as essential to survival.... 'I don't say his name, ever. I just avoid saying his name generally,' said one of the GOP lawmakers in a competitive race. 'I talk about the policies of his that I like.'" MB: Really? What policies? As far as I can tell, Trump's "policies" consist entirely of the old opera-singer warm-up: "Me me me me me."

Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "Walmart is expanding its employee health-care plans to cover more situations in which its staff might seek an abortion, making the nation's largest private employer the latest firm to offer enhanced access to reproductive health services after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Arkansas-headquartered Walmart, which has 1.6 million employees in the United States, said it would cover abortions 'when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest.' It will also pay for the procedure in the event of miscarriage, a lack of fetal viability or an ectopic pregnancy, when a fetus implants outside the uterus. The company will provide 'travel support' for employees and dependents if they require access to a health service covered by Walmart's insurance plan but there is no viable provider within 100 miles of their location." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The way I read the report, Walmart will not cover abortions for employees experiencing a viable but unwanted pregnancy without extenuating circumstances. I might be wrong. But if I'm right, this isn't much of a concession, even though it will be a lifeline for a few employees.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Gubernatorial Race. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "This week, GOP Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake caused controversy when she endorsed Jarrin Jackson -- an Oklahoma legislator who has proclaimed that 'the Jews' are evidence that 'evil exists' and that 'Jews will go to hell.' On Friday, a member of Congress [Ruben Gallego (D-Az.)] demanded to know whether she endorses those views -- and she responded with a bizarre attack insinuating he may have associated with a Chinese spy." Read the story for the details. Suffice it to say that Lake smeared both Gallego & Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) with a false accusation AND she did not rescind her endorsement of Jackson.

Florida. Philip Bump of the Washington Post puts Gov. Ron DeSantis's big election-fraud-arrests party into context. If you read Bump's column, you might just conclude that the "real fraudster" is -- Ron DeSantis. Includes the best "chart" ever. ~~~

     ~~~ Romy Ellenbogen & Bianca Ocasio of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau: "Five of those arrested Thursday on voter fraud charges told the Herald/Times they believed they were able to vote and had faced no issue registering. They said they would not have voted had they known their previous convictions made them ineligible.... [Those arrested] were charged with a third-degree felony, which can result in up to $5,000 in fines and up to five years in prison." The article explains why these voters had no idea they were ineligible to vote.

     ~~~ Marie: Other than DeSantis's obnoxious showboating, the purpose of his so-called voter fraud team seems to be to pile on another gross form of voter suppression. Every ex-felon (and I think there are something like 20,000 of them), whether or not he can legally vote in Florida, will be afraid to do so in case there's some quirk somewhere in Republicans' bag of tricks that renders him both ineligible to vote AND eligible for arrest if he does so. This is another cruel stunt perpetrated on people who should be trying to put their lives back together by, among other things, participating in one of a citizen's most important civic responsibilities.

Georgia. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court a federal judge's ruling that the state had adopted voting rules that disadvantaged Black voters in violation of a federal civil rights law. In an unsigned order without noted dissents, the justices wrote that an appeals court's reason for staying the judge's ruling -- that it had come too close to the election in November -- was flawed because state officials had told the judge that there was enough time to make the required adjustments. The Supreme Court vacated the stay and returned the case to the appeals court for reconsideration. The court's order was an exception to what legal experts say is a growing trend: a near-categorical ban on late changes to state election procedures even when those changes have been ruled necessary to address illegal infringements of the right to vote. But the exception was based on an unusual concession from state officials and therefore may not have larger implications."

Georgia Senate Race. Justin Bailey of WMAZ (Macon): "Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker says he's declined an invitation to participate in a debate in Macon against Senator Raphael Warnock.... Warnock accepted the invitation to participate about a month ago." BUT WAIT. Walker has a very good excuse, and here it is: "I'm not going to respond to anything because you know that's not a debate, and you know that.... You've got people that are contributors to his campaign and it's in this room that only two people gonna see it on a Sunday night, I think. NFL Football, I am giving you an opportunity to be statewide so everybody can see what it is, see the contrast between the two of us. I don't know how you can ask for anything better." WMAZ: "The debate is set for a Thursday night, not a Sunday."

New York Congressional Race. Hope Everybody Got the "Joke." Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "A Republican candidate for Congress in New York said he was 'being facetious' when, in the same interview, he said the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, should be executed for authorising the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago.... The candidate, Carl Paladino, recently caused controversy when he praised Adolf Hitler, as 'the kind of leader we need today'. Paladino made his remark about the attorney general in an interview with the far-right site Breitbart. Paladino said: 'So we have a couple of unelected people who are running our government, in an administration of people like Garland, who should be not only impeached, he probably should be executed.'" MB: I suppose it isn't lost on Paladino that Garland is Jewish. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Say, Carl, if you're looking for an endorsement, give Kari Lake a call. She's totally good with those of you in the pro-Hitler crowd. Seriously, the Lakes, the Paladinos, they all bring me to tears. And they are dangerous.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia and Ukraine both signaled their support for allowing international inspectors to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after warnings from both sides of a possible attack on the plant, currently under Russian control, set the world on edge.... The Pentagon announced Friday that it would send Ukraine $775 million in anti-armor missiles, drones and other military hardware. The package includes more howitzers and ammunition to support ongoing artillery battles in the east, plus new types of small arms and blast-resistant vehicles to aid an anticipated counteroffensive in occupied areas to the south."

Loveday Morris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Dire warnings from Russia and Ukraine about a possible attack at a nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine sent some nearby residents fleeing Friday and others hunkering down amid heightened international fears of a radioactive disaster. The ominous threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, alarmed world powers and renewed calls by U.N. Secretary General António Guterres for an immediate cessation of hostilities and access for international nuclear experts. 'Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,' Guterres said after a meeting in Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ukrainian officials said the Kremlin was behind explosions at the plant meant to create a 'provocation.'... Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of shelling the plant and risking a 'large-scale catastrophe.'"

FSB Intelligence Fail. Greg Miller & Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: "So certain were FSB [-- Russia's Federal Security Service --] operatives that they would soon control the levers of power in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian and Western security officials, that they spent the waning days before the war arranging safe houses ... for the planned influx of personnel.... The FSB's plans collapsed amid the retreat of Russian forces in the early months of the war. The communications exposing these preparations are part of a larger trove of sensitive materials obtained by Ukrainian and other security services.... They offer rare insight into the activities of the FSB -- a sprawling service that bears enormous responsibility for the failed Russian war plan and the hubris that propelled it.... The FSB has spent decades spying on Ukraine, attempting to co-opt its institutions, paying off officials and working to impede any perceived drift toward the West.... And yet, the agency failed to incapacitate Ukraine's government, foment any semblance of a pro-Russian groundswell or interrupt President Volodymyr Zelensky's hold on power. Its analysts either did not fathom how forcefully Ukraine would respond, Ukrainian and Western officials said, or did understand but couldn’t or wouldn't convey such sober assessments to Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Mexico. Mary Beth Sheridan & Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "Mexican authorities arrested the country's former attorney general on Friday and accused him of torture and forced disappearance in the mass kidnapping of 43 students in 2014, as the government made its boldest move yet to resolve one of the most severe human rights scandals in recent decades.... On Thursday, the government's point person on the case, Alejandro Encinas, labeled the disappearances a 'crime of state' that involved police, the armed forces and civilian officials, in addition to a drug-dealing gang based in Guerrero state. Scores of people have been arrested in the case, including police and alleged gang members, with many subsequently released because of a lack of evidence or signs that they were tortured. But Jesús Murillo Karam, the former attorney general detained Friday, was the highest-ranking former official to be charged." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hard to tell, I guess, if there is substance to the charges against Murillo Karam or if this is a banana-republic-style arrest. And no, Bo, I'm not talking about the former AG's fashion choices.

Comments

[Akhilleus]

The Phillip Bump column (linked above) detailing DeSantolini’s fraudulent PR whoopee party about (incredibly minuscule) voter fraud—sorry, “fraud”—includes the following bit of stern confederate finger wagging:

“All 20 of these individuals were disqualified from voting after they were convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense,”

Great! This means Matt Gaetz won’t be able to vote anymore after he’s found guilty of sex trafficking a minor. BUT, if he were to vote anyway, would there be a big fancy presser to announce that voter fraud has once again been uncovered by DeSantolini’s “election integrity” monkeys?

Ha! Never.

And because Fraud Cop Ron declined to mention it, 20 out of 11,000,000 is 0.00018%. Election integrity has been preserved! Thank you, Jesus!

[Marie Burns]

Late last night, Akhilleus posted several comments definitely worth reading, so I'm reposting two of them here & one following:

By Akhilleus:

(1) Listening to a report on the whack jobs taking over the Arizona GQP, I heard something to the effect that less psycho Republicans in the state are decrying this swing to the ultra right and hoping the whackos lose in November so things can get back to normal.

Hmmm…back to normal? Do they mean “Newt Gingrich, Darth Cheney, Decider, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove” normal? Because when you think about it, these are the assholes who set the stage for Trump and the current crop of psychotics taking over. In fact, moving over to Wyoming, one could say that Liz Cheney just fell into a political pothole carved out by her lying war monger, war profiteer, torture loving dad.

Reaping and sowing.

(2) Oh, and what I said about Arizona and Wyoming goes triple for Mitch McConnell. Can’t find candidates who aren’t smarter than a dead centipede? Maybe you shouldn’t have invited them in.

[Marie Burns]

By Akhilleus:

Here’s Runny Hair Dye Man with the scoop on purloined top secret documents at Martyr Lardo.

Sure, Trump took those docs. He was just “keeping them safe”.

Was Rudy always this stupid? Maybe that hair dye is toxic. I’m betting Fatty, and what’s left of his legal team (some chick who used to do night court in Fuckaloopa, Arkansas), are thrilled to hear Rudy go on TV and admit that Fatty did in fact take the docs and was just “keeping them safe”. In an unlocked broom closet. Just the place to store nuclear codes with Chinese spies, the Pillow Guy, and oddball winger weirdos prowling around.

https://mobile.twitter.com/atrupar/status/1560464469230342144

[P.D. Pepe]

YESTERDAY ------the really hard word that Fatty couldn't pronounce but Randy Rainbow can and puts it to song and spoof.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/randy-rainbow-yesterday-trump_n_62ffa582e4b00c150d61259d

So the man we love to hate continues to get press and the coverage will not abate until a much later date but even then there will be those who just "can't quit him", still in a state of grievance.

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: I don't see how we'll rid ourselves of that meddlesome beast until he's sitting behind bars in an orange jumpsuit with no way to rile up the basest of the base. If I were the judge (oh happy days!) I'd include in his sentence a prohibition against access to public communications, to interviews or to other news-making venues, and I'd extend his sentence every time he found some way to get around the prohibition.

[P.D. Pepe]

"The four years of the Trump Presidency were characterized by a fantastical degree of instability: fits of rage, late-night Twitter storms, abrupt dismissals. At first, Trump, who had dodged the draft by claiming to have bone spurs, seemed enamored with being Commander-in-Chief and with the national-security officials he’d either appointed or inherited. But Trump’s love affair with “my generals” was brief, and in a statement for this article [ by Susan Glasser & Peter Baker] the former President confirmed how much he had soured on them over time. “These were very untalented people and once I realized it, I did not rely on them, I relied on the real generals and admirals within the system,” he said...

It turned out that the generals had rules, standards, and expertise, not blind loyalty. The President’s loud complaint to John Kelly one day was typical: “You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?”

“Which generals?” Kelly asked.

“The German generals in World War II,” Trump responded.

“You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?” Kelly said."

And, of course, Trump didn't know that. Glasser and Baker wade through all the problems Fatty caused for "My Generals", once again revealing that this country had put a mob boss in the position of president. Milley, his last general, wrote a long letter of resignation but was persuaded not to send it and stick it out for fear what would happen if he left. The fact that so many knew so much but refrained from speaking out is such a big blotch on our landscape and I can only hope we have learned a lesson here. That protective blanket that shields the presidency becomes dangerous when nefarious acts go by the wayside and get covered up. We are now paying the price.

[Akhilleus]

PD and Marie,

Unfortunately, even if the Fat Fascist were sent to a Super Max prison for the duration of his unnatural life and was allowed visitation once a month only by Melanie (who would never show because really doesn’t care), we would not be rid of this monster.

At this point the Trump Monster has become a combination of the three headed Gorgon and the many headed Hydra. Cut one head off, and two take it’s place, and both new heads have serpents for hair (I’ve always thought MTG had a weird looking ‘do; must be the snakes under some kind of wig) who can turn anyone who looks at them for too long into treason loving, democracy hating, Christian nationalist white supremacists.

If you just look at the blasted, desiccated, poisonous landscape on the right, you see hordes of these monsters all marching, zombie-like to eat the brain of democracy. They don’t need Trump anymore. They’ve got TuKKKer and Hannity and MTG and Hawley and Kari Lake and god knows how many baby trumps coming down the pike.

This is like Dr. Frankenstein trying to kill off thousands of those monsters, Mary Shelly’s nightmare repeated over and over again, with no wake up call.

[Bobby Lee]

Did anyone catch the NBC news story on Sen Rick Scott (R-FL) warning people not to apply for the IRS jobs because the GOP will be defunding them when they take control?

[P.D. Pepe]

Here's the story that Bobby Lee is referring to:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/18/rick-scott-defund-irs-jobs-republicans-democrats

[Akhilleus]

The other day I posted a comment, only half in jest, about the newly woke GOP, but here they are, right on cue, the former “Party of Law and Order” (quotes absolutely necessary) and “Fiscal Responsibility” screaming about defunding the FBI and the IRS.

But Democrats talking about defunding police departments in the wake of the serial killings of unarmed black men were in-American traitors and commies.

[Akhilleus]

Wait…Joe Manchin?!?!…is complaining that some senator has been holding up Democrats from doing all they could achieve while they still have some control?? Joe Fucking Manchin?

🤦‍♀️ 🤦‍♂️

Isn’t this a little like a pyromaniac complaining that someone is out there setting fires causing damage to the community? The idea!

Chutzpah, like you read about.

[Akhilleus]

It’s not enough that Trumpist States like Florida have deemed it necessary to purge teaching of history and science, lest kids get the idea that deSantolini, Trump, Gaetz, and the rest of the entire GQP are lying to them, they are now banning words. That’s right. In Sarasota County, dictionaries are now being banned. I mean, you wouldn’t want kids learning the definitions of things like treason, mendacity, anti democratic, scam, bigotry, racism, and white supremacy, right? I mean, c’mon!

So now the Rotary Club (really? The Rotary Club?), which for years has donated hundreds of dictionaries to county schools has been told to fuck off.

More evidence of how cowardly and fearful these tough guys truly are. We can’t allow children to LEARN, can we? Certainly not unless we control what they read and what teachers tell them. I mean, what would Donald say?!?!

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/education/2022/08/19/sarasota-county-schools-denies-donated-venice-rotary-clubs-dictionaries/10357859002/