02b U.S. Politics – Progressive

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Excerpt from www.thenation.com

Consider Donald Trump to be in a racial bind when it comes to election 2024. After all, he needs Black voters to at least defect from Joe Biden in swing states, if not actually vote for him. Yet, more than ever, he also needs his white nationalist base to believe that a second Trump term will be even more racist than the first and he’s been openly claiming that he’ll address the ghost of anti-white racism. Not surprisingly, his evolving strategy for the Black vote has been high on empty symbolism and viral moments, but distinctly low on specific promised policy benefits for the Black community.

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Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had his excuse for flying a flag supporting the insurrection shattered when it was reported that a different flag supporting Trump’s insurrection flew at his beach house last summer.

The New York Times reported:

Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.

This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

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Excerpt from www.truthdig.com

 

Earlier this month, the MAGA world was elated when Republican attorney Charlie Spies resigned from his position as the Republican National Committee’s top lawyer after two tumultuous months on the job.

Following a sustained campaign to oust the veteran party attorney and strategist from his role as chief counsel to the RNC, Trump partisans saw the removal of Spies as a final, triumphant blow to the “establishment” wing of the GOP within the national organization. “President Trump woke up to the fact that he didn’t want a RINO in there who is doing nothing on the election integrity front,” declared Steve Bannon on his popular podcast. Trump himself crowed in a now-deleted Truth Social post that Spies’ ouster was “great news for the Republican Party.”

Despite framing his departure as voluntary, Spies was most likely forced out of his role by the former president after months of vociferous protest from the MAGA faithful. From the moment Spies’ RNC appointment was announced, Trump supporters began uncovering old quotes and videos of him criticizing the former president and rejecting conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Though Spies was eager to help his most fire-breathing RNC colleagues in their “election integrity” drive, he could not escape from his past.

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Excerpt from www.thenation.com

On April 22, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that focuses on whether unhoused—the term that has generally replaced “homeless”—people with no indoor shelter options can even pull a blanket around themselves outdoors without being subject to criminal punishment.

Before making its way to the Supreme Court on appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court held that municipalities can’t punish involuntarily homeless people for merely living in the place where they are. This is exactly what the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, did when it outlawed resting or sleeping anywhere on public property with so much as a blanket to survive in cold weather, even when no beds in shelters were available. The law makes it impossible for unhoused residents to stay in Grants Pass, effectively forcing them to either move to another city or face endless rounds of punishment. In Grants Pass, the punishment starts with a $295 fine that, if unpaid, goes up to $500, and can escalate from there to criminal trespass charges, penalties of up to 30 days in jail, and a $1,250 fine.

The issue before the court is whether such a law violates the Eighth Amendment’s restrictions against cruel and unusual punishment. The city is asking the court to decide that the Eighth Amendment doesn’t impose any substantive limit on what can be criminalized, so long as the punishment itself isn’t considered cruel and unusual. If so, municipalities across the nation would be free to make involuntary homelessness unlawful.

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Excerpt from www.politico.com

Republicans are openly trying to convince Rep. Garret Graves not to challenge his Louisiana GOP colleagues, fearing another ugly member-on-member fight in a state packed with House leaders.

Graves has kept his options open, and he’s facing a difficult choice. He can either run in his radically redrawn district, which now favors President Joe Biden by 20 points, or run against one of his fellow incumbent House Republicans.

The most likely match up is Graves challenging Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), a contest that could get personally nasty, since Graves has had a close working relationship with Letlow.

His colleagues argue he still has a chance to win in his current district, and are openly hoping Graves doesn’t cause trouble by crashing another seat — particularly not in a state that counts Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise in the delegation. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said “of course” GOP leadership is nervous about another member-on-member primary race.

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Excerpt from www.dailykos.com

Donald Trump has made a series of startling revelations in the past month about the reproductive freedoms he considers up for debate in ways most Americans never imagined.

State lawmakers should be empowered to enact restrictions and punishments for abortion as they please, in Trump’s view. They should also have unlimited authority on the means by which they enforce those bans—including putting pregnant women under state surveillance.

And let’s not stop at abortion. Just this week, Trump embraced the idea of imposing restrictions on contraception before claiming that Democrats made it all up.

Trump’s singular line in the sand on abortion is that it must not foil his chance at reclaiming the White House.

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Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

“Lyin’ Ted” may have met his match with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins who refused to allow Cruz to play his usual game with the false equivalencies while trying to get a straight answer out of him on whether he’ll be willing to accept the results of the 2024 election.

Cruz usually just steamrolls over anyone who isn’t some friendly compliant interviewer like he finds on Fox or some of the other right-wing propaganda outlets. Good for Collins for standing her ground with him.

During an interview this Wednesday, Collins asked Cruz “You were the first senator to object to the votes. In 2024 will you certify the election results? Do you plan to object or will you accept the results regardless of who wins the election?”

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Excerpt from www.thenation.com

Trust me: If President Joe Biden had faced hecklers or worse when he gave the Morehouse College commencement speech on Sunday, you would know about it. It would have led every newscast and dominated headlines in every paper, another dire portent of his alleged troubles with Black voters coming in November.

Instead, Biden faced a low-key protest, he clapped for and shook hands with the valedictorian who demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, and otherwise fared well. So you probably didn’t hear about it.

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Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

Fulton County DA Fani Willis was interviewed by Rachel Maddow the night before the Democratic primary and she cited her appearance on the show in her victory speech.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis routed Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary as she readied for a November contest against Republican Courtney Kramer. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, meanwhile, easily won a full term.

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Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday revealed evidence they said shows fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui—as well as an unnamed person who was living with him—had the “opportunity and motive to start” a fire that severely damaged Guo’s lavish penthouse apartment hours after his March 2023 arrest.

Prosecutors shared the incendiary new information about the mysterious blaze, which erupted in the iconic Sherry Netherland building just off Central Park, the day before jury selection is set to start in Guo’s trial for allegedly executing a massive fraud scheme.

The fire reportedly broke out hours after Guo’s arrest at 6 am on March 15, 2023, while FBI agents were still searching the penthouse, causing severe damage to the property. Guo—a patron and ally of Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon who claims to be a leading critic of the Chinese Communist Party—has a devoted following made up of Chinese emigres. His supporters have alleged that FBI agents, or possibly Chinese agents, started the blaze.

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Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

Guys – we are almost at the end!! The defense rested today after 2 witnesses testified on behalf of Donald Trump – and neither of them were named Donald Trump. I know, we are all completely and utterly shocked that the most honest man in the world, Donald Trump, who said for weeks on end that he was GAGGED and would absolutely, totally, 100% testify…wussed out at the last minute, like the utterly shameless coward that he is.

Ok, so today started with Trump whining about the temperature…

Trump: I’m fighting for 300 million people. It’s not like I like sitting in an icebox for 7,8,9 hours and it’s a very cold room pic.twitter.com/InBkBIwjGU

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 21, 2024

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Excerpt from crooksandliars.com

President Biden spoke over the weekend at a NAACP dinner in Detroit and didn’t sugarcoat it when he highlighted Trump’s fascist racism.

Biden highlighted the differences between his administration and one led by a fake evangelical, white supremacist, egomaniacal, make-up and dye-covered fat man.

The threat that Trump poses is greater in his second term than the first. It’s clear that when he lost in 2020, and I mean this sincerely, something snapped in Trump. He just can’t accept he lost, and he lost it.

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Excerpt from www.politicususa.com

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) explained on CNN why Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attack on her was racist and the racism of MAGA.

Rep. Crockett said when CNN’s Jake Tapper asked her to explain why she thought that  Greene’s comments were racist, “I think her specifically doing it to me. Yes, that was the intent. As has been stated, you know, women wear makeup, we wear lashes, we wear all types of things to beautify ourselves. But MAGA has historically been on social media doing the things where they’re saying, oh she’s black with um lashes and nails and hair. And so she’s ghetto. And so to me, this was her buying into that rhetoric and trying to amplify this for the MAGA crowd. And so yeah, I absolutely think that she only did it to be racist towards me.”

Tapper asked, “Because it was towards you or because it was eyelashes. So in that sense, it’s kind of like in your view, buying into a racist trope?”

Rep. Crockett responded, “It is buying into a racist trope. But the reality is that women of all colors wear lashes, right?”

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Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

One reason Donald Trump’s trial this month is so notable is that it is actually happening. As recently as last summer, it appeared that Trump would face four criminal trials ahead of the 2024 elections: two in state court and two in federal court. Today, it looks like the New York state hush money case will be the only one to reach a jury before November, and possibly ever. There is plenty of blame to go around for the delays. But one person who deserves a lot of that blame—or credit—is Trump himself.

As the press and voters debate whether Trump’s authoritarian tendencies could be checked in a prospective second term, it’s important to recognize that Trump is already escaping accountability thanks to the judges he installed during his first term, who have pushed off both federal cases against him.

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Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

Sen. Marco Rubio is the latest Republican potential vice presidential pick who refused to commit to certifying the election results. Aaron Schwartz/CNP/ZUMA

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Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)—all of whom are among the possible candidates, NBC News reported last week—have all failed to answer “yes” when television hosts have asked them if they will commit to accepting the results no matter who wins. Their responses have ranged from simply insisting Trump will be the next president, to spreading election misinformation, to falsely claiming that Democrats are trying to sabotage free and fair elections.

Today, one more lawmaker joined their ranks. When Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, put that question to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—who is also reportedly on the shortlist—he replied: “No matter what happens? No. If it’s an unfair election, I think it’s going to be contested by either side.”

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Excerpt from www.motherjones.com

President Biden faced minimal disruptions from protesters during his Sunday commencement address at Morehouse College—though some speakers, including the valedictorian, mentioned the plight of Palestinians.Paras Griffin/WireImage/Getty

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For weeks preceding President Biden’s commencement speech on Sunday at Morehouse College—a historically Black men’s college in Atlanta—students and faculty opposed his appearance, alleging that the president should not be the guest of honor given his ongoing support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

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Excerpt from www.thenation.com

Corrupt insurrectionists have no place on the Supreme Court.

In the wake of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the failed attempt to overturn the presidential election results, hard-core supporters of an insurrection on behalf of Donald Trump started flying the American flag upside-down. The inverted Old Glory was flown not just by the goons who fought with Capitol police but also, shockingly, over the household of a Supreme Court justice. On Thursday, The New York Times reported, “One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors. The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed.” The timing of the topsy-turvy banner is noteworthy: It came a little over a week after the coup attempt was crushed—but before Joe Biden was inaugurated, a tense period when Washington, D.C., had a heavy military presence, as the possibility of further violence hung in the air. According to the Times, the insurrectionist flag flew for “several days” during this anxious and fluid period.