I’ve heard more than few transgender folks say in anguish, “they just don’t want us to exist.” It’s heartrending. And it’s true: During the second day of CPAC events, Michael J. Knowles, a political commentator and Daily Wire host, made a series of pointed comments towards the trans community that many are viewing as genocidal. Ramping up to his speech on Saturday, Knowles called for the banning of transgenderism entirely in a recent episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” adding that it wouldn’t be genocide to do so as “It’s not a legitimate category of being.” Behind the podium on Saturday, he leveled up those initial remarks. “There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism,” Knowles said in his CPAC speech. “It is all or nothing. If transgenderism is true, If men really can become women, then it’s true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false — as it is — if men really can’t become women — as they cannot — then it’s false for everybody too.
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‘Proud Zionist’ Elaina Cohen says Starmer ‘crushing spirit of socialism’ and his ‘mission’ claim shows lack of concern for people On Saturday, Labour party pro-Israel hardliner Margaret Hodge wrote in the Guardian that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘deeply anti-democratic’ plan to put his government above the law and the country’s judicial system is destroying the […]
Better David Dale than you CPAC is in session, and the lies, smears, and distortions are flying. Liberally, ironically. There’s a whole lotta fabulizing goin’ on. If like me you are seeing a flood of conservative tweets and memes that make you baroo and think, That can’t be right, you’re right. I’ve wasted too much time already chasing down where the truncated quotes, ugly rumors, inaccurate statistics, and other RW nonsense originated. Thankfully, CNN’s new, oft-derided CEO Chris Licht has not fired fact-checker Daniel Dale. Not yet. Dale is still doing the debunking so you don’t have to. CPAC has kept him busy: Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio uttered two false claims about President Joe Biden. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated a debunked claim about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used two inaccurate statistics as he lamented the state of the country. Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon repeated his regular lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from Trump, this time baselesly blaming Fox for Trump’s defeat. Rep.
The wingnuts aren’t hearing anything about the Dominion lawsuit revelations — not even from Fox’s rivals: Fox News and its sister network, Fox Business, have avoided the story. Newsmax and One America News, Fox’s rivals on the right, have steered clear, too. So have a constellation of right-wing websites and podcasts. Over the past two weeks, legal filings containing private messages and testimony from Fox hosts and executives revealed that many of them had serious doubts that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election through widespread voter fraud, even as those claims were made repeatedly on Fox’s shows. The revelations, made public in a defamation lawsuit against Fox brought by Dominion Voting Systems, have generated headlines around the world. But in the conservative media world? Mostly crickets. On 26 of the most popular conservative television news networks, radio shows, podcasts and websites, only four — National Review, Townhall, The Federalist and Breitbart News — have mentioned the private messages from Fox News hosts that disparaged election fraud claims since Feb.
And dreaming about a new flying car initiative Donald Trump gears up for his campaign: Holed up at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, former President Donald Trump spends many mornings golfing and then, in the afternoons, plots his political comeback. Maybe he’ll shoot videos on policy proposals for his latest presidential campaign. But much of his and his team’s time is spent bemoaning his lack of coverage by Fox News and other cable networks, griping about his 2020 reelection defeat — something he’s very much not letting go — and workshopping new nicknames for his chief rival in GOP politics, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Trump, allies say, seems set on “Ron DeSanctimonious,” even though others around him don’t think it’s a bullseye.
He’s speaking today. Here’s a preview: Former President Trump plans to draw a sharp ideological contrast between his MAGA movement and Bush-era Republicans in his speech at CPAC on Saturday — and will urge GOP voters to finish the job of remaking the party by backing him for president. The CPAC conference, now dominated by the MAGA movement, offers Trump a home-field advantage. He first spoke there in 2011, where he previewed many of the populist themes that fueled his 2016 campaign. Trump’s keynote address, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET Saturday, is expected to last about 90 minutes. “The issues that brought Trump to the fore in 2016 are still with us,” one Trump aide told Axios. “These issues have never left. He’s going to remind people of the bigger picture. There’s a longer struggle here — in terms of finishing the job.” Trump’s finish the job rhetoric is somewhat reminiscent of President Biden’s message in his State of the Union speech last month, in which he called on lawmakers to “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and unifying the country.
This insufferable wingnut James Comer tries to wriggle out of a creepy comment by trying to say that he never said it. But it’s on tape: House Oversight Committee James Comer angrily denied lamenting that Beau Biden, the late son of President Joe Biden, should have faced criminal charges over a campaign finance scandal in which he was found not to have committed any wrongdoing whatsoever. Mr Comer, a Kentucky Republican, made the incendiary comments during an appearance on disgraced ex-Fox News host Lou Dobbs’ podcast last week, citing a years-old campaign finance scandal centered around a powerful Delaware beverage distributor, Christopher Tigani, who was sentenced to prison in 2012 for illegally funneling contributions to First State political campaigns. The investigation which led to his incarceration was led by David Weiss, a veteran prosecutor whom former president Donald Trump appointed as the US Attorney for Delaware in 2018.
And it’s right wing Via Salon: Domestic extremists killed at least 25 people in the United States last year and all of them had ties to forms of right-wing extremism, including white supremacy, anti-government extremism and right-wing conspiracy theorists, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League. Domestic extremist-related mass killings have increased in the past 12 years with most of them being tied to right-wing extremists, the ADL found. Researchers say the most concerning incidents are shootings inspired by white supremacist “accelerationist” propaganda urging such attacks. “White supremacists who consider themselves accelerationist believe that there’s no way they will ever be able to reform or change society to reflect what white supremacists want [and] the only option really is to actually destroy society and from the ashes, build a new white-dominated or white only society,” said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the ADL.
I was asked to contribute to an Italian online publication‘s tribute to John Kenneth Galbraith, by answering some questions about the relevance of his major work The New Industrial State (Galbraith and Galbraith 1967) six decades later. These were my responses. About sixty years later, how relevant and actual is the vision of the American … Continue reading "How does JK Galbraith’s The New Industrial Estate hold up after 6 decades?"
NC Republicans announce Medicaid expansion The vote is not planned until later this month. Until then anything can happen. On Thursday, however, Tar Heel State Republicans in firm control of the state legislature announced a deal for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. North Carolina would be the 40th state to expand Medicaid after a decade of Republican resistance. The Washington Post reports: The deal marks a stark turnaround for Republican leaders that played out over years in North Carolina and in states across the country, as more and more governors and legislatures expanded Medicaid to low-income residents. When that stopped working years ago, advocates put the measures on the ballot in seven conservative-leaning states, and voters approved expansion in every one. Associated Press: “This is something that we can all be very proud of,” House Speaker Tim Moore said at a Legislative Building news conference with Senate leader Phil Berger. “What a huge announcement this is for North Carolina.