Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), one of the last remaining Democrats who describes himself as “pro-life,” announced Tuesday that he intends to vote for the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would enshrine abortion rights in federal law.
Continue reading “In Major Shift, Casey Announces Intention To Vote For Bill Protecting Abortion Rights”Primal
My post from last night has spurred some very intense responses. I don’t agree with them. In fact, they tend to confirm in my mind the points I was trying to make in my original post. But I thought I would share them with you to give a flavor of them and let you make up your own mind.
Continue reading “Primal”OAN Admits Bogus Georgia Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory It Hyped Was Bogus
Pro-Trump media outlet One America News Network (OAN) put out a legal disclaimer on Monday admitting that a conspiracy theory it peddled about the 2020 election results in Georgia was false.
Continue reading “OAN Admits Bogus Georgia Election Fraud Conspiracy Theory It Hyped Was Bogus”Chalk
Susan Collins called the cops to investigate “defacement of public property” after an unknown person wrote a message in chalk on the sidewalk near her home asking her to codify Roe.
Collins Calls Cops Over, Uh, Chalk Message On Sidewalk
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Sensitive Readers, You Are Warned
Someone left a message written in chalk on the sidewalk outside of Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) home in Bangor, Maine on Saturday begging her to pass legislation to enshrine abortion rights into law, so naturally the GOP senator called the police to investigate the “defacement of public property” that can be washed away with a garden hose.
- The message read “Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA → vote yes, clean up your mess,” referring to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which will be up for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday as the Supreme Court looks prepared to strike down Roe v. Wade. Collins, one of the few pro-choice Republicans in the Senate, has said she doesn’t support the legislation.
- The officers found that the chalk message was “not overtly threatening,” a spokesperson for the police department told the Bangor Daily News on Monday.
Obv, 911 is your first call when confronted with such an aggressive water soluble writing pic.twitter.com/utaxtKZILa
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 10, 2022
Alleged Nebraska Groper On Ballot Today
Nebraska’s primaries are today, meaning we’ll see if Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster will prevail after eight women, including a state senator, accused him of groping them.
- Two of the women have stepped forward by name, and three people have spoken on the record to back up the allegations.
- Herbster has denied the accusations, insisting that “literally hundreds of females,” (plus “ladies” and “women”) can attest to how pro-female he is.
Rep. Cuellar Attempted Smear Campaign Against Pregnant Ex-Staffer He Fired
Jezebel’s report on a former aide’s sex and pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) reveals some ugly details of how the last anti-abortion Democrat in the House treated a staffer who sought maternity leave.
- Cuellar rejected his then-acting chief of staff Kristie Small’s request for parental leave in 2018 and fired her when she was in her third trimester of pregnancy.
- Cuellar tried to discredit Small by having his staffers write poor performance reviews about her after he fired her, at least five of which were written after she filed the suit.
- Small ultimately reached a settlement with Cuellar in 2021. The former staffer had sought $300,000 in damages when she first filed, but Jezebel reports that the terms of the settlement aren’t publicly available.
Must Reads
“How Private Equity Looted America” – Mother Jones
“How George Floyd Spent His Final Hours” – The Washington Post
Trump Claims A Dog Ate His Trump Org Phones
The ex-president is now insisting that he no longer has the cell phones given to him by the Trump Organization that the New York attorney general is seeking in her civil investigation into the company.
- Trump’s “new phone, who dis” claim is part of his effort to quash the fines he’s racked up, which reached $140,000 on Monday, as a result of a judge’s contempt order forcing him to pay $10,000 for each day that he refuses to comply with the attorney general’s subpoena.
Only Whites Need Apply
A white technical sergeant at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona allegedly told a Black senior airman via text last Wednesday that he wouldn’t be considered for a particular role because “the Air Force is looking for somebody of white complexion.”
- The Black airman alleged in his response to the white official that it was the third time he’d been passed over for a job “due to my looks.”
- The Air Force told Task and Purpose that the base has opened an investigation into the incident.
Russian Reporters Flood Pro-Kremlin Site With Anti-War Posts
Two reporters at Lenta.ru, a Russian state-owned media site, suddenly went rogue on Monday and published dozens of articles blasting Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his military assault on Ukraine.
- You can see the now-removed articles in an archived version of the page.
- Their protest echoed that of the Russian state TV editor who disrupted a live broadcast to protest the invasion on air in March:
Father Of Recently Freed Ex-Marine Roasts Cruz
The father of Trevor Reed, a Texas ex-Marine who was recently freed from a Russian prison, tore Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) a new one in a spicy Dallas Morning News interview for not doing anything to help Reed get released despite the family’s pleas.
- “He’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas, let me just say that,” the father said. “I don’t care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a bitch.”
House Lawmakers To Hold Public Hearing On UFOs
A House Intelligence subcommittee has scheduled for next Tuesday a public hearing on the “unidentified aerial phenomena” that’s been identified by the Pentagon recently.
Nesting Doll Of Stupid
Far-right commentator Dinesh D’Souza is throwing a fit over Newsmax apparently refusing to promote his ridiculous “documentary” on election fraud.
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Drop the Losers’ Logic
I’m seeing a lot of commentators saying the bill that Democrats propose to codify Roe will rapidly be rejected by this Supreme Court. If it’s not accompanied by Court expansion there’s no point. While I appreciate that these remarks are proffered in good faith and quite possibly accurate as predictions, it’s still losers’ logic.
Continue reading “Drop the Losers’ Logic”Durham Becomes Rallying Point In The Right-Wing Fever Swamp
In February 2022, Special Counsel John Durham inserted what seemed to be a bombshell allegation into an otherwise drab court filing: a firm paid by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign had accessed White House data.
Continue reading “Durham Becomes Rallying Point In The Right-Wing Fever Swamp”Thiel, Tech and the Hard Right Turn
Everything in our politics and society today seems stuck, hanging, thrusting forward in a foreboding moment of transition in which essentially nothing seems good but just where it’s all going isn’t at all clear. One of the big transitions is the shift of the tech world from its general indifference to politics in the first decade of the century, to a generally D-aligned engagement, to one that is increasingly but by no means universally aligned with the right and the hard right. In general many of us are accustomed to think of the tech high flyers as reflexively laissez-faire on economics while being cosmopolitan/libertarian on social issues. That latter stance isn’t liberalism, though it’s fairly close in the context of U.S. politics. This is changing rapidly, however, and I want to note some particulars about a development you may have heard about.
Continue reading “Thiel, Tech and the Hard Right Turn”From ‘Ballot Trafficking’ To ‘Zuckerbucks’: A Glossary For Election Conspiracy Theorists
It’s been more than a year and a half since Election Day 2020, but the lies that propelled Donald Trump’s effort to steal a second term in office aren’t going anywhere. If anything, the rabbit holes cultivated by right-wing operatives are only growing deeper and darker.
Continue reading “From ‘Ballot Trafficking’ To ‘Zuckerbucks’: A Glossary For Election Conspiracy Theorists”A Big Fizzle
For weeks, analysts in the U.S. and across Europe speculated and worried that the May 9th Victory Day parade in Red Square would be Vladimir Putin’s moment to announce a dramatic escalation in his war against Ukraine or issue dire new threats against NATO and the U.S. for arming Ukraine. It’s been the focal point of anxiety, perceived danger, the platform for the next big thing. And yet it all happened today and almost literally nothing happened. They had the parade with the big ICBMs. Putin gave a speech. It was defiant, repeated the basic message we’ve been hearing for months — Ukraine is Nazis, it’s a replay of World War II, Russia’s fate is at stake. But that was it. No announcement of mobilization, no dire nuclear threats.
Of course, thank God, more or less. That’s good news. And yet it’s another dog in this crisis that hasn’t barked. Something’s got to give — either fold or escalate — and yet nothing does.