Tucker Carlson’s Long Con by David Corn
April 25, 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones)Tucker Carlson wasn’t always Tucker Carlson. Or maybe he was.
When I met …(Carlson) in the late 1990s, he was stylizing himself as a facts-driven reporter who happened to work for the conservative Weekly Standard. His schtick was that he was a journalist, not an ideologue. Sure, he had right-of-center opinions, but he wanted to be known as a get-out-the-truth digger who reported on politics with panache and gonzo-ish attitude…His most well-known article at that time was a 1999 profile of then-Gov. George W. Bush (R-Texas) for Tina Brown’s short-lived Talk magazine. It depicted Bush dropping multiple F-bombs and showed him mocking a plea for clemency from a murderer who while imprisoned had converted to Christianity and become a cause celebre for evangelicals. She was executed on Bush’s watch. (In those days, such profanity and disrespect were considered unbecoming for a presidential candidate, and this article prompted questions about Bush’s suitability for the White House—now a quaint notion.)
Carlson…insisted he was not a partisan hack in the tank for Republicans and right-wingers. He even feared being tagged a “wing-nut.” In an interview with Howard Kurtz, then the media reporter for the Washington Post, Carlson explained his creed, “You try not to distort the truth because someone you’re profiling you think is on the right side of abortion or trade or any other issue. That would be dishonest.”
Further Extract:
When I ask people who worked with and knew Carlson well what happened to him, mostly I get shrugs and puzzled looks. How did this fellow who professed to be an honest broker of truth become a racist demagogue and promoter of far-right disinformation and dangerous conspiracy theories? As evidence in the Dominion lawsuit revealed, there is no longer any question that Carlson sold his integrity. On air, he was a champion of Donald Trump and provided a platform for Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election. Off air, he told his colleagues that Trump was a liar and that he despised Trump. No media figure as prominent (and as well-paid) as Carlson has been shown to be such a …hypocrite. From crusading journalist to con man—that’s quite the trip
House-Passed Bill Would Put Millions at Risk of Losing Medicaid Coverage
Once again, some policymakers are attempting to add bureaucratic barriers to Medicaid that would put health coverage for millions of people at risk. Yesterday, the Republican-led House of Representatives advanced legislation linking a debt limit increase to harmful funding cuts and policies, including adding complex work requirements to Medicaid starting in 2024.
The evidence is clear that such requirements do not further the Medicaid program’s objectives, and instead create barriers to care and put coverage at risk. For example, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis shows that Medicaid work and reporting requirements are confusing to enrollees and can result in substantial coverage loss, even if they meet the underlying requirements. In an earlier report, KFF found that if all states implemented work requirements, most disenrollment would be among individuals who would lose coverage due to the new administrative burdens, rather than due to noncompliance with the actual work requirements. Many of these adults would become uninsured and pay more for health care.
The current work status of Medicaid enrollees highlights this risk. In 2021, 61% were working full or part time. An additional 11% were not working due to illness or disability, 13% due to caregiving responsibilities, and 6% because they were attending school.
Similarly, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finds that most Medicaid enrollees aged 19-64 are either employed or have a disability (42% and 23% respectively), with a large proportion of the remainder working as caregivers of dependent children. ASPE reports that over 89% of working Medicaid enrollees are full-time, with an average of 34 hours of work per week.
This is a purge. Republicans are purging any who oppose them.
Florida officials are threatening to revoke the teaching license of a school superintendent who criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the educator of violating several statutes and DeSantis directives and allowing his "personal political views" to guide his leadership.
Such a revocation by the state Department of Education could allow DeSantis to remove Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna from his elected office. The Republican governor did that last year to an elected Democratic prosecutor in the Tampa Bay area who disagreed with the legality of his positions limiting abortion and medical care for transgender teens and indicated he might not enforce new laws in those areas.
Whistleblower Documents Reveal John Roberts' Wife Made Millions From Elite Law Firms, Major Companies by Julia Conley
April , 2023
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) A whistleblower from the legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa says Jane Sullivan Roberts, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, earned $10.3 million in commissions over seven years from her job as a headhunter at the company, where she placed attorneys with law firms—including at least one that argued a case before the Supreme Court after the placement was made.
Sullivan Roberts earned the money between 2007 and 2014, having taken a job with the company two years after her husband was confirmed to the Supreme Court, according to a report out Friday from Business Insider.
The whistleblower, Kendal Price, said in a sworn affidavit in December that he believed "at least some of [Roberts'] remarkable success as a recruiter has come because of her spouse's position."
Price's complaint was reported on earlier this year byPoliticoand The New York Times, and Insider published new documents regarding the case.
"When I found out that the spouse of the chief justice was soliciting business from law firms, I knew immediately that it was wrong," Price, who worked alongside Sullivan Roberts from 2011-2013 at Major, Lindsey & Africa, told Business Insider. "During the time I was there, I was discouraged from ever raising the issue. And I realized that even the law firms who were Jane's clients had nowhere to go. They were being asked by the spouse of the chief justice for business worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no one to complain to. Most of these firms were likely appearing or seeking to appear before the Supreme Court. It's natural that they'd do anything they felt was necessary to be competitive."
caltrek’s comment: It is so frustrating, and a little depressing, to realize that the Supreme Court is, in large part, controlled by a bunch of “conservative” kleptocrats. Just more evidence of why “just us” is more important than “justice” in America.
House GOP Whip Tom Emmer declines to outright guarantee U.S. will not default on its debts
Source: USA Today
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., declined to explicitly guarantee the U.S. will not default on its debts Sunday as debt ceiling brinksmanship continues in Washington.
“Can you guarantee as a leader in the United States Congress, that the United States of America will not default on its debts?” CNN host Dana Bash asked Emmer on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I can, assuming that our president and the Schumer senate recognize the gravity of the problem. This is no longer about politics,” Emmer responded, referring to President Joe Biden and congressional Democratic leaders’ refusal to entertain budget cuts tied to a debt ceiling proposal.
House Republicans narrowly passed their own debt ceiling proposal last Wednesday, raising the debt limit until May 2024 along with $4.5 trillion in spending cuts. The bill has an almost zero chance of passing the Democratic controlled Senate, and Biden has vowed to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
The U.S. could hit the debt ceiling by June 1, much sooner than expected, Yellen warns
Source: CNBC
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday warned that the United States may run out of measures to pay its debt obligations by June 1, earlier than the government and Wall Street had been expecting.
In a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Yellen said new data on tax receipts forced the department to move up its estimate of when the Treasury Department “will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government’s obligations” to potentially as early as June 1, if Congress doesn’t raise or suspend the debt limit before then.
This date is earlier than Wall Street economists were expecting. Goldman Sachs’ latest estimate this week put the deadline at some point in late July, though the bank’s economists acknowledged that weaker-than-expected tax receipts could advance that timeline.
On Monday, President Joe Biden called the “big four” congressional leaders — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, McCarthy and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries — to invite them to a May 9 meeting at the White House to discuss the debt limit, a White House official told NBC. The Congressional Budget Office also revised its estimate for the so-called x-date on Monday.
Students basically being trained as combat soldiers... Texas is truly a remarkable shithole. Can't simply do what every other modern civilized country has done in regard to guns. Ohohoho oh no, that would be unamerican.
Like said, I don't comment on politics much anymore, because in America it seems juxtaposed to the positivity of technological progress. But this is exactly what the freedumb fucks asked for. Please just let hard style singularity take off, because I'd rather that than, whatever the shit this is supposed to be.
A standoff between House Republicans and President Biden over raising the nation’s borrowing limit has administration officials debating what to do if the government runs out of cash to pay its bills, including one option that previous administrations had deemed unthinkable.
That option is effectively a constitutional challenge to the debt limit. Under the theory, the government would be required by the 14th Amendment to continue issuing new debt to pay bondholders, Social Security recipients, government employees and others, even if Congress fails to lift the limit before the so-called X-date.
That theory rests on the 14th Amendment clause stating that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
Some legal scholars contend that language overrides the statutory borrowing limit, which currently caps federal debt at $31.4 trillion and requires congressional approval to raise or lift.
Top economic and legal officials at the White House, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department have made that theory a subject of intense and unresolved debate in recent months, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
Illinois set to become first state to end book bans
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois is poised to become the first state to punish public institutions that ban books.
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has said he supports a House bill that would withhold state funding from any of the state’s 1,600 public or school libraries that remove books from their shelves. It passed in the Illinois Senate on Wednesday, and Pritzker is expected to sign the legislation.
“In Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth, we embrace it and lead with it,” the governor said when the bill was first presented. “Banning books is a devastating attempt to erase our history and the authentic stories of many.”
The final version of House Bill 2789 passed the state Senate 39 to 19 after it was approved in March by the House on a 66 to 39 vote.
The impetus for the legislation came from newly elected Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose office oversees library systems and their funding. Giannoulias, a Democrat, said he couldn’t fathom that book banning is happening in 2023.
Texas Senate Approves Bill To Allow Gov. Greg Abbott To Overturn Elections
Source: HuffPost via Yahoo
The GOP-controlled Texas Senate on Tuesday passed a proposal allowing the state to overturn elections in Harris County, home to the state's most populous city Houston.
The legislation penalizes county officials for running out of ballot paper at some voting sites in the 2022 election, the Houston Chronicle reported. Still, more importantly, it gives Republican Gov. Greg Abbott "precedent-setting" power to undo election results.
The measure would give Abbott's appointed secretary of state the authority to hold a new election in the county if it runs out of paper at 2% or more of its polling sites for more than an hour, the newspaper noted.
Snip...
The bill's Republican co-author, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, said, "There is no excuse why we can't competently run our elections and have adequate ballot paper."
Jury reaches at least partial verdict in Proud Boys Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trial
Source: ABC News
After a trial lasting several months, a jury in Washington on Thursday reached at least a partial verdict in the Proud Boys Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy case.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
GUILTY: 4 Proud Boys, Including Enrique Tarrio, Convicted of Seditious Conspiracy by Dan Friedman
May 4, 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) A Washington DC jury has convicted four members of the far-right Proud Boys group of seditious conspiracy and other crimes for actions connected to the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress. The verdicts came after a three-month federal trial and five days of deliberation.
The jury found Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy even though Tarrio did not personally take part in the January 6 riot. Tarrio had been arrested on Jan. 4 for vandalism during a previous pro-Trump rally and had been ordered to leave DC. Still, jurors found that he joined in a conspiracy to use violence to help Donald Trump retain power. Also convicted were: Ethan Nordean, the top Proud Boy on the ground that day; Joseph Biggs; and Zachary Rehl. The jury did not reach a sedition verdict for Dominic Pezzola, a lower-ranking member of the organization.
The jurors also convicted all the defendants except Pezzola of conspiracy to obstruct Congress. They did, however, convict Pezzola of obstructing an official proceeding and other charges related to the riot. On January 6, Pezzola used a stolen police riot shield to smash out window panes on the western side of the Capitol, allowing the first breach of the Capitol Building itself. The jurors were likely unsure if Pezzola was involved enough in planning to be guilty of conspiracy. US District Court Judge Timothy Kelly—a Trump appointee—instructed them to continue deliberating on the unresolved counts.
With the convictions, 14 members or affiliates of far-right groups that played leading roles in the January 6 attack have been convicted of the symbolically important charge of seditious conspiracy. Six members of the Oath Keepers militia group were previously found guilty of sedition, while four other men have pleaded guilty to that charge.
Further Extract:
Like lawyers for many January 6 defendants, attorneys for Tarrio and other Proud Boys argued that Trump was ultimately to blame for the attack on Congress. They insisted that their clients were low-level backers who were being unfairly prosecuted while the former president and his aides avoid consequences.
MT: Judge issues restraining order against new abortion requirement
A Lewis and Clark County District judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the state from allowing a newly signed abortion restriction law from being enforced until after a hearing because the law is likely a violation of the Montana Constitution.
Judge Mike Menahan issued the temporary restraining order on Thursday afternoon, which stops House Bill 575 from becoming an enforceable law just a day after Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the measure, along with four other anti-abortion restrictions, and five more on the way to his desk. He pledged to sign those measures as well.
House Bill 575 is part of several abortion measures that are being challenged in district court. The new law would have required healthcare providers to perform an ultrasound on a woman who seeks an abortion, and also requires written documentation to be kept on file that documents that the fetus is not viable. The bill defines viability at 24 weeks, effectively banning it after that point.
Opponents to the bill during the 2023 legislative session criticized the measure brought by Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, because it added unnecessary procedures, paperwork and expense, while interfering with the medical care and privacy of patients.
Georgia's GOP governor signs bill that could remove local prosecutors and DAs from their jobs
CNN — Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed legislation Friday that will create an oversight commission with the power to remove local prosecutors and district attorneys from their jobs. The measure has been heavily criticized by Democrats, including an Atlanta-area DA, who is seriously weighing charges in connection with former President Donald Trump’s actions in Georgia during the 2020 election.
Prior to the signing, Kemp’s office said that the measure, known as SB 92, would create “an oversight mechanism for district attorneys and solicitors-general across Georgia to ensure accountability in upholding constitution and statutory duties.”
“As hardworking law enforcement officers routinely put their lives on the line to investigate, confront, and arrest criminal offenders, I won’t stand idly by as they’re met with resistance from rogue or incompetent prosecutors who refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said in a press release after signing the bill. He added that the creation of the commission “will help hold prosecutors driven by out-of-touch politics than commitment to their responsibilities accountable and make our communities safer.”
The GOP-led state legislature passed the bill earlier this year, mainly along party lines.
