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Biden orders flags to half-staff as US records 1 million COVID deaths

coronavirus covid tally
coronavirus covid tally

President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the U.S. reaching the milestone of 1 million coronavirus deaths.

“One million empty chairs around the family dinner table,” Biden said in a pre-taped video message. “Each irreplaceable, irreplaceable losses. Each leaving behind a family or community forever changed because of this pandemic. Our heart goes out to all those who are struggling.”

Biden has ordered flags be flown at half-staff at the White House and all federal public buildings and grounds until sunset on May 16 in remembrance of those who lost their lives to the virus.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

White House announces measures to address baby formula shortage

White House Washington DC President
White House Washington DC President

The White House announced a series of measures Thursday to address a shortage of baby formula across the U.S. after President Joe Biden met with key retailers and manufacturers.

The steps include an effort to reduce red tape and to speed formula production and to make it easier to import formula from abroad, as well as a plan to crack down on price gouging nationwide.

“We know families are concerned,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters. Biden held a “productive” virtual meeting with the heads of Gerber, Reckitt, Target, Walmart and other companies about increasing supply and availability.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Rand Paul blocks quick passage of $40 billion Ukraine aid package

Rand Paul
Rand Paul

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul defied leaders of both parties Thursday and single-handedly delayed until next week Senate approval of an additional $40 billion to help Ukraineand its allies withstand Russia’s three-month old invasion.

With the Senate poised to debate and vote on the package of military and economic aid, Paul denied leaders the unanimous agreement they needed to proceed. The bipartisan measure, backed by President Joe Biden, underscores U.S. determination to reinforce its support for Ukraine’s outnumbered forces.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Kevin McCarthy, other Trump House allies

justice court lawyer
justice court lawyer

The committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol took the unprecedented step Thursday of issuing subpoenas to five Republican congressmen, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

The Democratic-controlled committee previously had asked the congressmen, who also include Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs of Arizona, to sit for voluntary interviews, but all had refused.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Biden says US farmers can help in inflation fight as food prices continue to soar

graph poll
graph poll

President Joe Biden hit the road Wednesday to talk about the role American farmers can play in alleviating global food shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At O’Connor Farms, a family-run farm in Kankakee, Illinois, Biden outlined steps his administration is taking to help farmers ramp up domestic production.

“Right now America is fighting on two fronts,” Biden said. “At home, it’s inflation and rising prices. Abroad, it’s helping Ukrainians defend their democracy and feeding those who are left hungry around the world because Russian atrocities exist.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Finland’s Leaders In Favor Of Applying For NATO Membership

NATO
Nato

Finland’s president and prime minister said Thursday they’re in favor of applying for NATO membership, paving the way for the alliance to expand amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The dramatic move by Finland was announced by President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin in a joint statement. It means that Finland is virtually certain to seek NATO membership, though a few steps remain before the application process can begin. Neighboring Sweden is expected to decide on joining NATO in coming days.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Republicans Block Bill To Codify Roe v. Wade Once Again

capitol washington DC
capitol washington DC

Legislation aimed at safeguarding abortion rights across the country failed in the Senate for the second time this year as a conservative majority on the Supreme Court prepares to strike down its landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade.

The Women’s Health Protection Act would create federal protections for providing and accessing abortion services. The House already passed the bill, but Senate Republicans blocked it from advancing earlier this year.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Supreme Court Justices To Meet Today For 1st Time Since Roe Draft Ruling Leak

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

The Supreme Court’s nine justices will gather in private Thursday for their first scheduled meeting since the leak of a draft opinion that would overrule Roe v. Wade and sharply curtail abortion rights in roughly half the states.

The meeting in the justices’ private, wood-paneled conference room could be a tense affair in a setting noted for its decorum. No one aside from the justices attends and the most junior among them, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is responsible for taking notes.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

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Biden highlights efforts to fight inflation, attacks ‘ultra-MAGA’ GOP

graph poll
graph poll

President Joe Biden on Tuesday continued his sharpened attack on what he’s now calling the GOP’s “ultra-MAGA” agenda as he pitched his plan to tackle inflation.

His remarks came as the national average price of a gallon of gas hit a record high of $4.37 a gallon, AAA said.

“I want every American to know that I am taking inflation very seriously,” Biden said from the podium in the South Court Auditorium. “It is my top domestic priority.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

 

Trump-backed candidate loses Nebraska governor’s primary

Nebraska State Seal
Nebraska State Seal

​​Donald Trump failed to deliver a victory Tuesday in a Nebraska GOP primary for a gubernatorial candidate accused of groping multiple women, NBC News projects, handing the former president his first loss of this year’s election season.

University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen won the party’s nomination after a heated contest, defeating a state senator and self-funding businessman Charles Herbster, whom Trump campaigned for last week even after eight women — including a Republican state senator — accused Trump’s favored candidate of inappropriately touching or kissing them against their will.

Pillen, boosted by support from term-limited Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who bankrolled an outside group, appears set to finish with a comfortable lead over Herbster.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Senate to vote today on nationwide abortion bill ahead of Roe decision

The Senate is set to vote Wednesday on advancing a Democratic-led bill that would enshrine broad protections for legal abortion nationwide, a move triggered by a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that indicates Roe v. Wade will likely be overturned.

The vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which has passed the House, is all but certain to fail, with just 49 senators expected to support the measure, below the 60-vote requirement to defeat a Republican filibuster.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Biden: Vladimir Putin May Have No Way Out Of Ukraine War

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

President Joe Biden believes Russian President Vladimir Putin may not know how to end his brutal ongoing invasion of Ukraine after failing to achieve his objectives in the first two months.

“We’ve rallied the world to keep Putin in place… I’m confident that Putin believed he could break up NATO, that he believed he could break the European Union,” Biden said at a Monday night fundraiser for the Democratic Party. But now that those goals seem elusive, Biden said, he worries that the “very calculating” Putin is unsure of what to do.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Biden touts expansion of discount internet program for low-income households

computer google mac laptop
computer google mac laptop

As he seeks to close the nation’s digital divide, President Joe Biden announced on Monday new commitments from 20 internet service providers to expand discounted, high-speed internet access to tens of millions of low-income Americans under an existing federal program.

“It’s going to change people’s lives,” Biden said from the White House Rose Garden. “From rural Appalachia to Brooklyn, to the Black Belt families who have struggled to get internet.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Senate passes bill to boost security for Supreme Court

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

The Senate passed legislation Monday to beef up security for Supreme Court justices, ensuring they and their families are protected as the court deliberates abortion access and whether to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

The bipartisan bill, which passed by voice vote with no objections, did not provide additional funding, which could come later. But it aims to put the court on par with the executive and legislative branches, making certain the nine justices are provided security as some protesters have gathered outside their homes. The bill now moves to the House for its consideration.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

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Average US gasoline price jumps 15 cents to $4.38 per gallon

gas gasoline fuel car
gas gasoline fuel car

The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline jumped 15 cents over past two weeks to $4.38 per gallon.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the current price sits just a nickel below the highest average price in history — $4.43, set on March 11.

The average price at the pump is $1.36 higher than it was one year ago.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Jill Biden crosses into Ukraine, meets first lady

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

First lady Jill Biden traveled Sunday into war-torn Ukraine, where she met with her Ukrainian counterpart in a Mother’s Day show of solidarity for women fleeing Russia’s invasion.

After she crossed the Slovakian border, Biden traveled to the western city of Uzhhorod, where she met Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, at a school. 

“I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Putin marks Victory Day with Moscow military parade, speech

Putin Russia
Putin Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin marked Victory Day, celebrating the Soviet Union’s World War II triumph over Nazi Germany with a grand display of military might and an address from Moscow’s Red Square.

The Russian leader linked his war in Ukraine with that historic struggle in a speech that blamed the West for the conflict but contained no new escalations.

Progress in Ukraine has eluded Putin, with Russian forces devastating but far from defeating the country in a war that has ground on for more than two months. With his military failing to secure the gains Putin may have wanted in order to declare success, analysts have speculated about whether the Kremlin may use the occasion to further intensify its struggling campaign.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Protesters Target Supreme Court Justices’ Homes Following Leaked Draft Opinion

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

Activists protesting against the Supreme Court’s expected ruling gutting Roe v. Wadegathered outside the homes of two conservative justices over the weekend and plan to do so again later this week.

Close to 100 protesters chanted and waved signs Saturday evening outside the Maryland house of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then marched to the nearby home of Chief Justice John Roberts. Police eventually ordered them to disperse when they returned to Kavanaugh’s house.

“The time for civility is over, man,” protest organizer Lacie Wooten-Holway told Bloomberg. “Being polite doesn’t get you anywhere.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

The Rude Pundit: Men Are Mostly Responsible for the End of Roe, So F*** Up Their World, Too

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

The Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a draft decision on which was leaked this week, centers on a law passed by the Mississippi legislature in 2018 and signed by its governor. That law banned all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It was struck down by lower courts because it patently violated what the Supreme Court allowed in the Roe v. Wade decision. And now we know that a majority in the Supreme Court is willing to shitcan Roe in order to drag the nation into becoming a Christian theocracy.

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

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U.S. Intelligence Has Reportedly Helped Ukraine Kill Russian Generals

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

The United States reportedly shared intelligence that has helped Ukraine target and kill Russian generals during the Kremlin’s ongoing invasion of the country.

According to The New York Times, senior American officials said the U.S. had provided real-time battlefield intel to the Ukrainians, including the location of Russia’s mobile military headquarters. Ukraine then used that knowledge, as well as its own intelligence, to conduct artillery strikes and attacks to kill Russian officers.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Hillary Clinton Has Ominous Warning About What’s Next If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned

Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton cautioned that the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade could be just the start of rights being rolled back for other groups nationwide.

“This opinion is dark. It is incredibly dangerous and it is not just about a woman’s right to choose. It is about much more than that,” the former secretary of state told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview that aired Thursday.

“Any American who says, ‘Look, I’m not a woman, this doesn’t affect me. I’m not Black, that doesn’t affect me. I’m not gay, that doesn’t affect me’ — once you allow this kind of extreme power to take hold you have no idea who they will come for next,” Clinton continued.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

‘Dancing Monkey’ Lindsey Graham Performs For Donald Trump In ‘Extraordinary’ New Audio

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, tells reporters that he will push for a vote in Congress to kick the Palestinian Liberation Organization out of its Washington offices and threaten to withhold U.S. financial assistance if the Palestinians seek to use enhanced U.N. status against Israel, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sucks up to former President Donald Trump just weeks after the deadly U.S. Capitol riot in new audio released by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.

Graham initially condemned Trump’s incitement of the violence on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the audio that Martin and Burns shared on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Thursday shows how his denunciation of Trump had a “pretty fast expiration date,” said Burns.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Biden names Karine Jean-Pierre as White House press secretary

Karine Jean Pierre and Jen Psaki
Karine Jean Pierre and Jen Psaki

President Joe Biden on Thursday named Karine Jean-Pierre as the new White House press secretary, succeeding Jen Psaki. Jean-Pierre will be the first Black woman and the first openly gay person to hold the position.

“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people,” the president said in a statement. “Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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The White House is looking for actions it can take to protect abortion rights

White House Washington DC President
White House Washington DC President

In the hours after a leaked Supreme Court document signaled the court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade in the coming weeks, President Biden vowed to fight to protect access to abortion.

“We will be ready when any ruling is issued,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday.

But in marathon meetings and phone calls among White House officials, government lawyers, outside advisers and federal agency officials, a sobering reality settled in: There’s little the White House can do that will fundamentally alter a post-Roe landscape. While officials have spent months planning for the possibility the court would overturn the landmark ruling, the leaked document caught the White House off guard. Officials are discussing whether funding, whether through Medicaid or another mechanism, could be made available to women to travel to other states for an abortion, according to outside advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, but many doubt whether that is feasible.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post 

Fed Makes Biggest Interest Rate Increase Since 2000 as High Inflation Persists

dollars money bills
dollars money bills

The Federal Reserve ramped up its attack on rapid inflation on Wednesday, approving its biggest interest rate increase since 2000, detailing a plan to shrink its massive bond holdings and signaling that it will continue working to cool the economy as it tries to tamp down the fastest price increases in four decades.

Yet investors found a reason for relief. While the Fed raised interest rates half a percentage point and its chair, Jerome H. Powell, said similarly large increases would be “on the table” at the Fed’s upcoming meetings, he shot down the idea that policymakers were considering an even larger move, as some investors had feared.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Donald Trump Jr. testifies before House panel probing Jan. 6 riot

Golden Gavel Court
Golden Gavel Court

Donald Trump Jr. testified Tuesday before the House committee investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol, a person close to the former president‘s oldest son said Wednesday.

Appearing by videoconference for two hours, Trump Jr. spoke to the panel voluntarily, the source said, adding that the discussion was “pretty uneventful.”

A spokesperson for the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump Jr., through a spokesperson, declined to comment.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Secretary Of State Antony Blinken Tests Positive For COVID-19

Covid Test Coronavirus
Covid Test Coronavirus

Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon, according to the State Department.

Blinken is fully vaccinated and boosted, the department said in a statement, and he is experiencing “mild symptoms.” He had tested negative on Tuesday and again on Wednesday morning.

The secretary of state attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening with some 2,600 other attendees — including President Joe Biden. However, the State Department said Biden isn’t considered a close contact of Blinken, as they have not seen each other in person in “several days.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

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Oklahoma Governor Signs Texas-Style Ban On Most Abortions

Oklahoma
Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions.

Stitt’s signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation’s high court that it is considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nearly 50 years ago.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Trump appointee twice delayed report on Russian election interference, federal watchdog says

A top Trump political appointee delayed a report on Russian election interference in the 2020 election in a way that created the perception that intelligence was politicized, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security watchdog.

The DHS inspector general report also found that employees of DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis made changes to the analysis of foreign election interference “that appear to be based in part on political considerations, potentially impacting I&A’s compliance with Intelligence Community policy.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

JD Vance wins Ohio GOP Senate primary after Trump endorsement

Ohio Flag
Ohio Flag

Buoyed by former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, J.D. Vance prevailed in Ohio’s competitive Republican Senate primary Tuesday and will face off in November against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, NBC News projects.

In the gubernatorial contest, incumbent Republican Mike DeWine secured the nomination in his bid for re-election, NBC News projects, while former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley won the Democratic nod.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Emotions run high outside Supreme Court as demonstrators weigh future of abortion

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

The plaza outside the Supreme Court is once again ground zero for demonstrators on both sides of the abortion debate, but the tensions and emotions this time around far exceed those of previous protests.

Thousands of protesters gathered after a leaked draft opinionpublished Monday night by Politico suggested that Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established abortion rights nationwide, could be overturned this summer. Some came from in and around Washington, while others had traveled from other parts of the country.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Jeffrey Toobin Warns Same-Sex Marriage Is ‘Certainly’ in Jeopardy After Opinion Overturning Roe v. Wade Leaked

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reacted to a leaked draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade on Monday night, warning the same-sex marriage could be next.

Toobin appeared on Don Lemon Tonight, where the eponymous host asked, “What other cases have been decided based on these precedents that could now be in jeopardy?”

Toobin didn’t hesitate.

“Same-sex marriage is, certainly,” he replied. “This came up a lot during the confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson – that it is quite clear that the Republican majority–the Republican politicians, at least, think this is the time to roll back a whole series of opinions that were passed when the Supreme Court had a very different majority.”

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Putin may soon officially declare war on Ukraine, US and Western officials say

Ukraine War Bombing Destruction
Ukraine War Bombing Destruction

Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, a move that would enable the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces as invasion efforts continue to falter, US and Western officials believe.

May 9, known as “Victory Day” inside of Russia, commemorates the country’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Western officials have long believed that Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of that day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities — or both.
 

Jan. 6 committee seeks info from GOP Reps. Ronny Jackson, Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol is requesting interviews with three Republican members of Congress, including one whom members of the Oath Keepers militia group are alleged to have said they needed to protect because he had “critical data.”

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., contended in letters sent Monday to Reps. Ronny Jackson of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama that the trio have information that could be helpful to the panel’s investigation into “the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A draft Supreme Court opinion indicates Roe v. Wade will be overturned, Politico reports in extraordinary leak

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

In what would amount to an unprecedented leak in modern times, Politico on Monday night published what it said was a draft opinionindicating the Supreme Court would overturn the abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade in a pending case later this year.

The document, reportedly authored by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated in February, suggests at least five justices side with Mississippi in its case before the court challenging the landmark 1973 abortion ruling.

NBC News has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the document, and the Supreme Court declined to comment.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Charlie Pierce: Mike Esper Didn’t Think Voters Deserved to Know That Trump Wanted to Turn D.C. Streets Into My Lai?

I’m beginning to believe that book contracts are a genuine threat to democratic government. Once again, someone who worked at Camp Runamuck is cashing in big time revealing information now that it would have been nice to know at the time. This time around, it’s former Secretary of Defense Mike Esper.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

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Kinzinger says he “would love” for Pence to testify before January 6 committee

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Sunday he “would love” for former Vice President Mike Pence to voluntarily appear before the House select committee investigating the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Pence played a crucial role in the congressional proceedings on January 6, rebuffing pressure by then-President Donald Trump to reject electoral votes from key battleground states he lost and ultimately reaffirming President Biden’s win. While some of his aides have answered questions from House investigators, Pence has not done so.

Asked whether he would like to see the former vice president come forward and meet with the select committee, Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the panel, said he “would love to see that.”

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

White House Correspondents’ Dinner returns with president in attendance

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner made its grand return Saturday night, two years after the pandemic shut it down and six years since the last time a commander-in-chief attended the event.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attended the charity event at the Washington Hilton, the first sitting president to do so since 2016. Former President Donald Trump vocally snubbed his three invitations during his time in office.

Biden referenced his predecessor during his speech and said, “We had a horrible plague followed by two years of COVID.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Civilians evacuated from Mariupol steel plant; Pelosi meets Polish president

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Civilians are finally being evacuated from the bombed-out steel plantwhere hundreds have been sheltering in the last Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, the key city that is otherwise under Russian control after months of siege.

The rescue operation in the southeastern port, which also includes other areas of the city, comes after weeks of failed efforts with Russian forces bombarding Mariupol as they battle to make progress in their new offensive in the region.

The United States and its allies have stepped up their military support for Kyiv, with the surprise weekend trip to the Ukrainian capital by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic lawmakers the latest signal of growing Western backing.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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American killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Ukraine

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

An American citizen, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Ukraine, members of Cancel’s family confirmed to CNN.

The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on Monday. The company had sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.

Cancel, a former US Marine, according to his mother, signed up to work for the private military contracting company on top of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee shortly before the war in Ukraine broke out at the end of February, Cabrera said. When the war began, the company, according to Cabrera, was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Trump Finally Posts Second Message On Truth Social As Elon Musk Twitter Competition Looms

Trump Dumb
Trump Dumb

Former President Donald Trump finally posted his second message on Truth Social on Thursday — 10 weeks after his first — in the face of massive new competition from a Twitter platform owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk.

“I’m back!” Trump posted on his problem-plagued social media platform.

He inexplicably followed the greeting with the hashtag “COVFEFE,” a nonsensical word that he apparently typed accidentally in 2017 when he was president, and which was widely derided as the product of a confused leader of the nation.

That tweet — referring to a “press covfefe” — was later deleted by Trump, who initially challenged people to decipher the word.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Moderna asks FDA to authorize Covid vaccine for children under 6

syringe vaccine shot
syringe vaccine shot

Moderna asked the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to expand the use of its Covid-19 vaccine to children ages 6 months to 5 years.

The drugmaker’s request will now be considered by the FDA, which is expected to make a final decision in June.

The agency is expected to seek the advice of its advisory committee, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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McCarthy defends himself to Republicans after leaked Jan. 6 recordings, receives standing ovation

republican elephant GOP
republican elephant GOP

House Republicans on Wednesday rallied behind Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as he defended himself over audio recordings surfaced of him blaming former President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 riot and suggesting that some GOP lawmakers were inciting violence and should be kicked off social media platforms.

In the first closed-door GOP meeting since the New York Times released recordings of a Jan. 10, 2021, leadership call in which McCarthy was sharply critical of Trump and some hard-right members of Congress, the California Republican argued that he was speaking hypothetically and walking through various “scenarios” following the attack on the Capitol as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Biden blocked from winding down Trump-era border policy

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to halt its efforts to dissolve a coronavirus-related border restriction initiated in 2020, potentially derailing the Biden administration‘s goal of rescinding the Trump-era policy by late May.

U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana, who said Monday he intended to issue the injunction, barred Homeland Security from taking steps to wind down the policy known as Title 42 over the next two weeks. He also set a May 13 hearing date to determine whether the pause should be extended beyond May 23, when the administration aims to fully rescind the rule, which was initiated by former President Donald Trump.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden to ask Congress for new Ukraine aid package today

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

President Joe Biden will request Congress fund a new supplemental aid package for Ukraine during remarks from the White House Thursday morning, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The extra funding is intended to last for the next five months, through the end of the fiscal year, the sources said.

Administration officials earlier described the amount of the request as “massive” but would not provide a specific dollar amount. Some details were still not finalized, the officials said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Fauci says U.S. is transitioning out of ‘pandemic phase’

fauci
fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed optimism about the state of the pandemic in the U.S. this week.

“We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase,” Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told “PBS NewsHour” on Tuesday.

He later told The Washington Post that the U.S. had entered the “control” stage of the pandemic, as the coronavirus is causing far lower levels of hospitalizations and deaths than during the winter surge of the omicron variant.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast W 4-27-22

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Russia says Ukraine war could go nuclear if West keeps sending weapons

Russia Moscow
Russia Moscow

Russia’s Foreign Minister said Tuesday that if the U.S. and Ukraine‘s other Western allies continue to arm the country as it battles Moscow’s invading forces, the risk of the war escalating into a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated.” In an interview with Russian TV, Sergey Lavrov said that by providing weapons, NATO nations were “pouring oil on the fire” and risking “World War III.”

He said the ongoing arms shipments to Ukraine meant NATO was “in essence engaged in war with Russia” already.

The veteran Kremlin diplomat issued his latest warning as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met in Germany with NATO allies, urging European nations to increase their military aid to Ukraine. Germany’s defense chief announced Tuesday that the country would start sending self-propelled armored anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Rep. Madison Cawthorn cited for having loaded gun at Charlotte airport

plane airplane flight
plane airplane flight

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., was cited Tuesday for having a loaded 9 mm handgun at a security checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, the second time he has been stopped with a firearm at an airport since he took office last year.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said the incident occurred just before 9 a.m., when it was notified that Transportation Security Administration agents had found a firearm, ammunition and a magazine in Cawthorn’s belongings at a security checkpoint, according to a police report.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Kamala Harris tests positive for Covid

Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid on Tuesday, her office said.

At the time of the test result, Harris was not exhibiting any coronavirus symptoms, said her press secretary, Kirsten Allen. An adviser to the vice president later said Harris’ physician prescribed the therapeutic drug Paxlovid, a Covid antiviral pill from Pfizer that has been cleared for use in people at high risk for developing severe illness.

Advisers have not said whether Harris, 57, is now exhibiting symptoms.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

In new audio, McCarthy worried comments by certain GOP lawmakers could incite violence after Jan. 6

Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., feared that remarks by fellow Republican lawmakers could jeopardize the safety of other GOP members of Congress after the Jan. 6 riot, according to new audio recordings from just days after the attack on the Capitol.

The recordings from a Jan. 10, 2021, call obtained by The New York Times shine a new light on the intensity of McCarthy’s private concerns about members of his own caucus at a time when his public appearances downplayed those worries.

In the newly released audio, McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., name several Republicans in Congress whom they saw as potential threats to other GOP lawmakers.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast T 4-26-22

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N.Y. judge holds Trump in contempt for failing to produce documents in attorney general probe

Golden Gavel Court
Golden Gavel Court

A New York state judge on Monday found Donald Trump in civil contempt of court and ordered him to pay $10,000 a day until he turns over documents that have been subpoenaed by the state attorney general’s office.

Attorney General Letitia James had sought the fine as a way to force the former president to turn over documents her investigators say they need as part of their civil probe into the Trump Organization’s business practices.

In a pair of tweets, James hailed Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling as “a major victory.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Judge plans to hit pause on Biden effort to end Trump-era Covid restriction at border

A federal judge said Monday he intends to temporarily block the Biden administration from lifting the coronavirus border restrictionknown as Title 42.

It would be a victory for Republican-led states and some led by Democrats that sued to keep the immigration policy, which was initiated in the Trump administration.

U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays of the Western District of Louisiana announced his intention to grant the motion in a virtual status conference Monday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News 

New Texts Reveal Jan. 6 Discussions Between Mark Meadows And Trump Backers

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

CNN has obtained thousands of text messages exchanged between Mark Meadows and Donald Trump’s high-profile supporters, revealing never-before-seen conversations about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and other efforts to stop Joe Biden from taking office.

Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff under Trump, provided the log of texts to the House committee investigating the insurrection in December, shortly before he stopped cooperating with the probe.

The committee has previously released some of those messages to the public, but CNN reported Monday that it had obtained the 2,319 messages that Meadows had turned over, all of which were sent and received between Election Day 2020 and Biden’s inauguration seven weeks later. Meadows declined to give the committee about 1,000 other text messages, the panel said in a court filing.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Elon Musk Reaches Agreement To Buy Twitter And Take It Private

Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion on Monday, promising a more lenient touch to policing content on the social media platform where he — the world’s richest person — promotes his interests, attacks critics and opines on a wide range of issues to more than 83 million followers.

The outspoken Tesla CEO has said he wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

Musk said in a joint statement with Twitter that he wants to make the service “better than ever” with new features while getting rid of automated “spam″ accounts and making its algorithms open to the public to increase trust.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Charlie Pierce: Who Was Mike Pence’s Secret Service Detail Working for on January 6?

Charlie Pierce Esquire
Charlie Pierce Esquire

I first got interested in politics through paranoia. (As the years have gone by, I’ve found that this was the best kind of introduction I could have had.) I devoured political thrillers about dark doings in Washington, D.C. Seven Days in May was my gateway drug. There was Night at Camp David, about a president who went crazy, and Vanished, about a secret peace conference, and the self-explanatory The President’s Plane Is Missing, about another secret peace conference. There was Fail-Safe, the classic about an accidental nuclear exchange. If you dig deep enough, you find that my politics were formed as much by Fletcher Knebel as by anyone else. However, this early reading has become increasingly relevant in recent weeks as we steadily discover that we actually had a half-mad president* who plotted to overthrow the government. Air Force One, I presume, is still where it’s supposed to be.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

StephCast M 4-25-22

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Covid was third-leading cause of death in U.S. once again in 2021

coronavirus covid tally
coronavirus covid tally

For the second year in a row, Covid was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday.

Covid was the underlying cause of more than 415,000 deaths in 2021, or 13 percent of the national total, the report found. That’s an increase from 10 percent in 2020. Per capita, Covid death rates increased among every age group in 2021 except those 85 and older.

In both 2020 and 2021, the only conditions that killed more people than Covid were heart disease, which caused 693,000 deaths last year, and cancer, at 605,000 deaths in 2021. The data is provisional, though, so the numbers could change as the CDC collects more information. The Covid tally also doesn’t include 45,000 deaths for which the coronavirus was a contributing factor rather than an underlying cause.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Meadows was warned Jan. 6 could turn violent, former White House official says

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

A former White House official warned Mark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, could turn violent, according to a court filing from the House panel investigating the Capitol riot.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a special assistant in the Trump White House, said Meadows received information before the day of the attack that “indicated that there could be violence,” according to transcripts contained in the 248-page filing late Friday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

To Europe’s Relief, France’s Macron Wins But Far-Right Gains

France French Flag
France French Flag

French President Emmanuel Macron comfortably won a second term Sunday, triggering relief among allies that the nuclear-armed power won’t abruptly shift course in the midst of the war in Ukraine from European Union and NATO efforts to punish and contain Russia’s military expansionism.

The second five-year term for the 44-year-old centrist spared France and Europe from the seismic upheaval of having firebrand populist Marine Le Pen at the helm, Macron’s presidential runoff challenger who quickly conceded defeat but still scored her best-ever electoral showing.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Blinken Says Russia Is Failing In War Aims, Ukraine ‘Succeeding,’ After Kyiv Visit

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after a secrecy-shrouded visit to Kyiv that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy is committed to winning his country’s fight against Russia and that the United States will help him achieve that goal.

“He has the mindset that they want to win, and we have the mindset that we want to help them win,” Austin told reporters in Poland, the day after the three-hour face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy in Ukraine.

Austin said that the nature of the fight in Ukraine had changed now that Russia has pulled away from the wooded northern regions to focus on the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. Because the nature of the fight has evolved, so have Ukraine’s military needs, and Zelenskyy is now focused on more tanks, artillery and other munitions.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

SM Happy Hour Videocast with Malcolm Nance & Dr. Irwin Redlener

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StephCast F 4-22-22

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Biden to issue Earth Day order to safeguard old-growth forests

Earth Globe
Earth Globe

President Biden will sign an executive order on Friday in Seattle laying the groundwork for protecting some of the biggest and oldest trees in America’s forests, according to five individuals briefed on the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was not yet finalized.

Biden will direct the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to define and inventory mature and old-growth forests nationwide within a year, three of the individuals said. He will also require the agencies to identify threats to these trees, such as wildfire and climate change, and to use that information to craft policies that protect them.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post

Philadelphia ending mask mandate days after it was restored

N95 Mask Covid Coronavirus
N95 Mask Covid Coronavirus

Philadelphia is ending its indoor mask mandate, city health officials said Thursday night, abruptly reversing course just days after city residents had to start wearing masks again amid a sharp increase in infections.

The Board of Health voted Thursday to rescind the mandate, according to the Philadelphia health department, which released a statement that cited “decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts.”

The mandate went into effect Monday. Philadelphia had ended its earlier indoor mask mandate March 2.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden commits additional aid to Ukraine as Russia declares ‘success’ in Mariupol

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. would give another $1.3 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine but that additional funding will soon be needed from Congress to maintain the flow of weapons.

Biden said the latest aid would include $800 million in heavy artillery weapons, including 72 howitzers and 144,000 rounds of ammunition, along with 121 tactical “ghost” drones. The U.S. also plans to provide another $500 million in humanitarian and economic assistance.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

McCarthy said he would urge Trump to resign after Jan. 6, new audio reveals

Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy

Just days after the Jan. 6 riot, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy told a fellow Republican lawmaker that he would recommend to then-President Donald Trump that he resign, according to audio of a call shared with MSNBC and aired Thursday night.

In the Jan. 10, 2021, call, McCarthy can be heard telling Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., that he planned to tell the president he should step down following the violent attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.

McCarthy, R-Calif., also indicated that he thought impeachment would succeed in the House and possibly the Senate.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast Th 4-21-22

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Baseball pregame show prompts brief evacuation of U.S. Capitol

A pregame performance at a Washington Nationals baseball game featuring the Army’s Golden Knights prompted a brief evacuation of the U.S. Capitol.

Capitol Police evacuated the building Wednesday but then said there was no threat in a series of messages to staff members and journalists who work there.

“The Capitol was evacuated out of an abundance of caution this evening. There is no threat at the Capitol. More details to come,” police said in a statement.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Trump releases audio that appears to refute claim he walked out of interview over 2020 questions

An audio recording obtained by NBC News appears to show that former President Donald Trump’s highly publicized interview with Piers Morgan did not end with Trump storming off the set, as edited promotional video clips suggest.

Instead, according to the recording, which was provided by Trump’s spokesman, the two men thanked each other and laughed at the conclusion of the interview for Talk TV, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Putin Tells Forces Not To Storm Ukraine Stronghold In Mariupol

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol on Thursday but instead to block it “so that not even a fly comes through.”

His defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the rest of the city beyond the sprawling Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian forces were holed has been “liberated” — as Russian officials refer to areas of Ukraine they have seized. Putin hailed that as a “success.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Justice Department appeals ruling lifting transit mask mandate after CDC request

The Department of Justice has moved to appeal a ruling that struck down the federal mask mandate on planes, trains and transit systems after a request by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said in a statement Wednesday that “at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health,” adding that it has asked the Justice Department to proceed with an appeal.

The Justice Department said that it has filed a notice of appeal “in light of today’s assessment by the CDC” in a statement late Wednesday afternoon.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast W 4-20-22

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Trump pushes back against New York attorney general’s contempt effort

An attorney for Donald Trump hit back Tuesday at an effort by New York Attorney General Letitia James to have the former president held in contempt, claiming he doesn’t have documents demanded by James.

James’ office asked a state judge on April 7 to issue an order of contempt against Trump, saying he failed to comply with a previous ruling requiring him to turn over documents by March 31 as part of an investigation into his company’s financial practices.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeals judge’s ruling to allow challenge to re-election bid

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Tuesday appealed a ruling by a federal judge in Georgia who said a lawsuit challenging her qualifications to run for re-election can move forward.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg denied Greene’s request for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the suit Monday. Free Speech for People, an election and campaign finance reform organization, filed the lawsuit last month on behalf of a group of Georgia voters, alleging that Greene facilitated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Aiming To Secure A Win In Donbas, Putin Hits Ukrainian Cities, Pours More Troops Into War

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Russia hurled its military might against Ukrainian cities and towns and poured more troops into the war, seeking to slice the country in two in a potentially pivotal battle for control of the eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.

The fighting unfolded along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of miles long in what is known as the Donbas. If successful, it would give President Vladimir Putin a victory following the failed attempt by Moscow’s forces to storm the capital, Kyiv, and heavier-than-expected casualties.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Justice Dept. to appeal decision lifting mask mandate on planes, trains if CDC deems rule necessary

N95 Mask Covid Coronavirus
N95 Mask Covid Coronavirus

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it will appeal the ruling that lifted the federal mask mandate on planes, trains and transit systems, pending a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the order is still required for public health.

The Justice Department will not, however, ask the court to stay the decision, meaning passengers will be able to continue traveling maskless while the decision is litigated.

In the day since a federal judge in Florida struck down the CDC’s requirement, numerous airlines and public transit systems have announced that masks were optional.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast T 4-19-22

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Russia begins long-awaited offensive in eastern Ukraine

Ukraine War Bombing Destruction
Ukraine War Bombing Destruction

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.

Russian forces have since retreated from northern Ukraine, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. The United States and many European countries accused Russia of committing war crimes after graphic images emerged of dead civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. Moscow is now said to be refocusing its offensive on the eastern Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Former MSNBC Contributor Malcolm Nance Reveals He Joined Ukraine’s Foreign Legion to Fight Russians: ‘I’m Done Talking’

Malcolm Nance Ukraine Soldier
Malcolm Nance Ukraine Soldier

Former MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance revealed Monday he is fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers as part of the country’s foreign legion.

The network’s former national security analyst has been absent from MSNBC’s coverage of the war in recent weeks. On Monday’s The ReidOut, he revealed why.

Nance, who spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy, told host Joy Reid he left the U.S. just a few weeks into Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine after he had seen enough carnage.

Read the rest of the story and see the video at Mediaite

Kimberly Guilfoyle Meets With Jan. 6 Committee

Kimberly Guilfoyle
Kimberly Guilfoyle

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of former President Donald Trump’s eldest son, met with the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection Monday — more than a month after she abruptly ended a voluntary interview with lawmakers — according to a person familiar with the matter.

Guilfoyle, 53, arrived Monday morning at the federal office building on Capitol Hill where the committee has been conducting its virtual and in-person interviews to sit down with lawmakers, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss private testimony.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Airlines Begin Dropping Mask Mandates Following Court Ruling

Multiple airlines and other transit providers announced Monday they’ve ended their mask requirements, responding just hours after a federal judge voided a recently extended mandate.

Most of the major air carriers in the United States announced that, effective immediately, they will no longer enforce mask-wearing rules, which have been federally enforced on public transportation since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines making the change include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Jet Blue, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Charlie Pierce: No State Official Is Doing More Damage to This Nation Than Greg Abbott

Charlie Pierce Esquire
Charlie Pierce Esquire

Good ol’ Tate Reeves, governor of Mississippi, is all down for the heritage, y’all. From the AP:

The Republican governor signed a proclamation without fanfare Friday. It does not mention slavery — the defense of which was Mississippi’s stated reason for trying to secede from the U.S. In response to a question at a news conference Wednesday, Reeves said he issued a Confederate Heritage Month proclamation “in the same manner and fashion that the five governors that came before me, Republicans and Democrats alike, for over 30 years have done. And we did it again this year,” Reeves said. “Didn’t think this was the year to stop doing it.”

Well, that’s some barnyard poultry droppings right there. But do go on, Your Caucasianess.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

StephCast M 4-18-22

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Mar-a-Lago Machine: Trump as a Modern-Day Party Boss

republican elephant GOP
republican elephant GOP

On any given night, Donald J. Trump will stroll onto the patio at Mar-a-Lago and say a few words from a translucent lectern, welcoming whatever favored candidate is paying him for the privilege of fund-raising there.

“This is a special place,” Mr. Trump said on one such evening in February at his private club. “I used to say ‘ground zero’ but after the World Trade Center we don’t use that term anymore. This is the place where everybody wants to be.”

For 15 months, a parade of supplicants — senators, governors, congressional leaders and Republican strivers of all stripes — have made the trek to pledge their loyalty and pitch their candidacies. Some have hired Mr. Trump’s advisers, hoping to gain an edge in seeking his endorsement. Some have bought ads that ran only on Fox News in South Florida. Some bear gifts; others dish dirt. Almost everyone parrots his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Trump Rages in Easter Message to ‘Radical Left Maniacs’ and ‘Racist’ Attorney General Letitia James

The former president wound up sending another statement out, this one wishing “Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are doing everything possible to destroy our Country. May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and well!”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Covid infections rise, but hospitalizations remain low

The Covid-19 pandemic, having shaken the world for the past two years, has entered a new phase, one driven by a combination of fear, apathy and uncertainty. In some parts of the country, masks have become rare sights, and the assumption is the pandemic is over. But in other places, masking is back as concerns rise about a new variant and the potential for another spike in cases.

Last week, Philadelphia announced it was reinstating an indoor mask mandate until rates drop again. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed course and said masks will continue to be required on commercial flights until at least May 3. That mandate had originally been set to expire Monday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Blasts rock Lviv in the west as Mariupol fights ‘to the end’

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Explosions rocked Lviv early Monday in a rare and deadly attack on the western Ukrainian city — a safe hub for refugees, Western officials and the media — that came as the world braced for a major Russian offensive further east.

At least 6 people were killed in the Russian missile strikes, local officials said, with Russian forces striking areas across Ukraine while readying a new ground offensive in the east.

Blasts also hit the central region of Dnipropetrovsk. The capital, Kyiv, and Kharkiv in the northeast were targeted over the weekend.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The Rude Pundit: Tucker Carlson Has an Orgasm… A Fantasia

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

Tucker Carlson is checking the strength of his belts. He’s putting them over the reinforced bar in the closet in his office and pulling with both hands, sometimes even seeing if he can lift himself off the ground. He knows from experience that it’s not the belt’s ability to hold his weight briefly but for two or three minutes. That’s key to the whole thing. He thought he only bought the best, toughest leather, but last time, the belt snapped, and he ended up hitting the ground, pantsless, almost jamming a wingtip into his asshole in the process, which is not an unpleasant thing, just one you want some anticipation for. Luckily, he hadn’t passed out, so when his assistant knocked on his door to ask if he was okay, he could gasp out, “Fine. Fine. Just doing some pull-ups.” That’s why he told the Fox News execs he needed the bar: because he’s so into fitness that he might want to do pull-ups before he hits the set. Although, truth be told, they knew exactly what it was for because Sean Hannity has it. O’Reilly had one. It’s almost as if it’s a requirement in order to be a male host on Fox.

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

SM Happy Hour VideoCast 4-15-22 with Richard Cheese & Frank Figliuzzi

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Russia Vows To Ramp Up ‘Scale Of Missile Attacks’ On Kyiv

Israel Gaza Palestine Missiles War
Israel Gaza Palestine Missiles War

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday promised to ramp up “the scale of missile attacks” on Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s “diversions on the Russian territory.”

The statement comes a day after Russian authorities accused Ukrainian forces of launching airstrikes on residential buildings in one of the country’s regions on the border with Ukraine, in which seven people sustained injuries.

According to Russian officials, some 100 residential buildings were damaged in Thursday’s attack on the Klimovo village in the Bryansk region. The Defense Ministry said that the Russian forces in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region shut down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter that was allegedly involved in the attack on the Bryansk region.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

As Covid cases rise, here are the latest CDC guidelines for testing and isolation

coronavirus covid

A wave of cases of the BA.2 omicron subvariant appears to finally be hitting the U.S.

Although the country’s Covid hospitalizations are at an all-time low, average daily case numbers have risen by 9 percent in the last two weeks, according to NBC News’ tally. Many experts agree that the true scale of the virus’s spread is far larger, because infections are being undercounted.

BA.2 accounts for around 86 percent of U.S. cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But some of the agency’s guidelines about masking, testing and isolation have changed since the big omicron case wave earlier this year.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Brooklyn subway shooting suspect Frank James had ‘stockpile’ of weapons, prosecutors say

gun guns ammo weapon bullets
gun guns ammo weapon bullets

The man accused of opening fire on a rush-hour New York subway car did so with “premeditated” intentions and had access to a “stockpile” of weapons, prosecutors said Thursday.

Frank James, 62, made his initial appearance in a federal courtroom accused of committing a terrorist attack on mass transit, a federal charge that could bring a life sentence if he is convicted, prosecutors said.

James picked up a U-Haul van Monday in Philadelphia and went to New York City with violent plans, according to a memo filed by the government.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

GOP Abandons Presidential Debate Commission

The Republican National Committee voted Thursday to pull out of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the group that has organized debates between the leading candidates for president for every presidential election since 1988.

“Debates are an important part of the democratic process, and the RNC is committed to free and fair debates,” Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “Today, the RNC voted to withdraw from the biased CPD, and we are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

StephCast Th 4-14-22

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Mask mandate on planes, trains extended 15 days, CDC announces

The Biden administration is extending the mask mandate for travelers on airplanes, trains and other transit systems into May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.

The current requirement that all travelers wear face coverings had been set to expire next Monday, but the Transportation Security Administration will now extend the requirement for an additional 15 days, through May 3, the CDC announced.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Russia evacuates flagship after suffering major damage in Black Sea blast

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Ukrainian officials said their forces launched a successful missile attack on the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, forcing the crew to evacuate the vessel.

The Russian defense ministry said the Moskva warship had been “seriously damaged,” but blamed the incident on a fire.

NBC News has been unable to verify what happened on the ship, but its loss could prove a significant setback in Russian forces’ efforts in Ukraine’s south and east, where a fierce battle for Mariupol is ongoing.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Mark Meadows removed from voter rolls by North Carolina State Board of Elections

north carolina flag
north carolina flag

Former President Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has been removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls by the State Board of Elections “after documentation indicated he lived in Virginia” and voted in Virginia last year, WRAL first reported.

The Board of Elections notes that if North Carolina residents move to the metro Washington, D.C., area to work for the government, they aren’t considered to have lost their residence — unless they also cast a vote there.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Frank James, suspect in Brooklyn subway shooting, arrested in New York

blue light police siren

The suspect in Tuesday’s violent rampage in New York City’s subway system was arrested Wednesday, authorities announced. Police had been looking for Frank James, 62, since tying a U-Haul van they say he rented to Tuesday’s subway shooting.

Ten people were shot and wounded in the attack, and over a dozen more suffered other injuries. James is facing a federal terrorism charge and a possible punishment of life in prison, authorities said. Police are still investigating the motive behind the attack that happened during Tuesday morning’s rush hour.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

StephCast W 4-13-22

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Tens of thousands feared dead in Mariupol as Russia renews assault in eastern Ukraine

Tens of thousands of civilians could be dead in Mariupol, the city’s mayor said, as analysts warn that Russia is regrouping for a renewed assault on eastern Ukraine.

The streets in Mariupol are “carpeted” with bodies, Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said Monday.

While there is no confirmed number of casualties, the mayor suggested the number of dead could be well over 10,000 in the coastal town, the site of some of the worst bombardment since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Trump ‘authorized’ assault on Capitol, Jan. 6 defendant argues at trial

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

An attorney for a man who took a coat rack and a bottle of liquor during the U.S. Capitol attack argued to a jury Tuesday that former President Donald Trump “authorized” the assault on the building on Jan. 6, 2021, by convincing “vulnerable” people like his client that the election had been stolen.

Dustin Thompson, 38, of Ohio, is the third Jan. 6 defendant to face a trial by jury after the convictions of Guy Reffitt and former police officer Thomas Robertson. Thompson faces six charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and theft of government property. His co-defendant, Robert Lyon, pleaded guilty last month, admitting that he and Thompson traveled to Washington together and saying stole the coat rack and fled from police when they were confronted on the grounds of the Capitol.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden says Russia is committing ‘genocide’ in Ukraine

Biden Speaking
Biden Speaking

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine amounted to “genocide,” marking the first time he has leveled the accusation against President Vladimir Putin.

“More evidence is coming out about literally the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine,” Biden told reporters during a trip to Iowa. “And we’re going to only learn more and more about the devastation. We’ll let the lawyers decide, internationally, whether or not it qualifies [as genocide] but it sure seems that way to me.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

‘Person of interest’ named in NYC subway shooting that wounded 10, injured 13

New York City police named a “person of interest” in the shooting Tuesday morning aboard a subway train in Brooklyn.

Ten people were shot and 13 others were injured after a man wearing a gas mask threw two smoke canisters and then opened fire aboard a subway car on the N train as it approached the 36th Street Station in Brooklyn during the morning rush hour, authorities said.

New York Police Chief of Detectives James W. Essig said at a news conference Tuesday night that Frank R. James, 62, rented a U-Haul van, the keys of which were found at the scene of the shooting in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast T 4-12-22

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Fears for Mariupol as fighting set to escalate in the east of Ukraine

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

With fighting in eastern Ukraine expected to intensify, the fate of Mariupol is once again in the spotlight.

Ukrainian forces have held out for weeks in the besieged port city, but fears are growing for the civilians trapped without basic supplies as Russian troops appear poised to mount a major new offensive. The strategic city’s beleaguered defenders have raised the prospect that Russian forces had used chemical weapons, an escalation the West has long feared but which remains unconfirmed.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

White House says it expects inflation to be ‘extraordinarily elevated’ in new report

dollars money bills
dollars money bills

The Biden administration is bracing for Tuesday’s key consumer inflation report to show that the prices Americans pay soared in March, as Russia’s assault on Ukraine caused energy prices to jump.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the Labor Department’s previous report — which showed prices rising at a dramatic ratein February — failed to include the majority of the jump in oil and gas costs caused by the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion.

“We expect March CPI headline inflation to be extraordinarily elevated due to Putin’s price hike,” Psaki told reporters.

Read the rest of the story at CNBC

Biden looks to boost ethanol to lower gas prices

Biden speech flag
Biden speech flag

The Biden administration said Tuesday it plans to help boost the production and sale of ethanol-blended gasoline to alleviate pain at the pump as inflation skyrockets.

President Joe Biden will announce that the Environmental Protection Agency expects to issue an emergency waiver that would suspend a summer ban on the use of a specific blended fuel, senior administration officials told reporters on a call.

Biden will make the announcement during a visit to a bioprocessing plant in Menlo, Iowa, a state that produces a significant part of the country’s ethanol.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Philadelphia Restores Indoor Mask Mandate Amid New Wave Of COVID-19 Cases

N95 Mask Covid Coronavirus
N95 Mask Covid Coronavirus

Philadelphia is restoring its indoor mask mandate as the number of COVID-19 cases rise across the region.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health announced the reinstatement of the mandate on Monday, giving residents and businesses a “one-week educational period” to prepare for the change.

COVID-19 rates are rising in Philadelphia, with an average of 142 cases per day within the last two weeks and a 4.5% increase in positive COVID tests, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Charlie Pierce: Don Junior Was Claiming the ‘Moral High Ground’ in His Overturn-the-Election Texts

Charlie Pierce Esquire
Charlie Pierce Esquire

They were all crooks and they were crooks for the working day. From CNN:

In the text, which has not been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Electoral College process, according to the message reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021. “It’s very simple,” Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, adding later in the same missive: “We have multiple paths We control them all.”

And Sluggo’s mouthpiece is trying out some new material.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

StephCast M 4-11-22

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Aaron Rupar: RIP Eric Boehlert. His voice will be missed.

Aaron Rupar
Aaron Rupar

I had something else written and ready to go for today’s newsletter, but in a strange twist of fate, it drew significantly from what would turn out to be Eric Boehlert’s last piece. So it feels appropriate to instead write a few words about why I think his voice will be sorely missed, especially at this time.

If you haven’t heard, Boehlert passed suddenly late Monday at age 57. The terrible news was announced Wednesday afternoon on Twitter by Soledad O’Brien, who said he died in a bike accident. While details remain scant, reports later emerged that Boehlert was fatally struck by a train in Montclair, New Jersey.

Read the rest of Aaron Rupar’s piece at Public Notice

Russia appoints general with cruel history to oversee Ukraine offensive

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Russia’s reported appointment of Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, a man with a history of targeting civilians, to take over operations in Ukraine marks what some military analysts see as an indication that Russia intends to terrorize civilians as the war progresses.

Dvornikov, who most recently oversaw Russian troops in Syria, was chosen as the new ground commander in Ukraine, a U.S. official and a Western official confirmed.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

72 people at high-profile D.C. dinner test positive for Covid

coronavirus covid tally
coronavirus covid tally

Seventy-two people have tested positive for Covid-19 after having attended the Gridiron Dinner in Washington last weekend, including members of the Biden administration and reporters.

Gridiron Club President Tom DeFrank said Sunday that the group had reported 72 cases out of the hundreds of people who attended. New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was also at the dinner, tested positive Sunday. It was the first Gridiron Dinner since 2019, before the pandemic, and guests were required to show proof of vaccination, DeFrank said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden scheduled to unveil new steps on gun violence

gun guns violence bullet holes
gun guns violence bullet holes

Amid growing concern about gun violence and untraceable “ghost guns” that can be 3D-printed at home, President Joe Biden was scheduled Monday to introduce new policy measures on firearms.

Biden’s announcement will most likely rely on executive orders on gun control, ghost guns and other facets of firearms regulation as part of an approach to rein in the pandemic wave of firearms-related attacks, two people with knowledge of his remarks said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Jan. 6 panel has enough evidence to refer Trump for criminal charges, Cheney says

Liz Cheney
Liz Cheney

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has enough evidence to refer President Donald Trump for criminal charges, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Sunday.

It’s absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing — what a number of people around him were doing — that they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway,” Cheney, the vice chair and one of two Republicans on the committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when host Jake Tapper asked her whether the panel had enough evidence to make a criminal referral for Trump. Cheney said the panel has not made a decision about moving forward with the referral.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The Rude Pundit: Democrats Should Go on the Offensive By Celebrating Accomplishments

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

A couple of things really stick in my craw from the last couple of years, and those are that we’ve been denied celebrating as a nation some pretty remarkable accomplishments. And while that denial is led by Republicans, quick to stomp any hints of optimism or hope like they’re cockroaches, Democrats should have and still can embrace amazing things and turn it into a story that the nation is not failing. Rather the opposite. It offers a counter-narrative to Republican gloom, doom, and pedophilia. It massages the part of the lizard brain that is often used to getting dopamine hits of hate and rage. 

I mean, everything’s not even in the neighborhood of perfect, but, c’mon, look at this:

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

SM Happy Hour VideoCast 4-8-22 Eric Boehlert Tribute & Karl Frisch

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StephCast F 4-8-22

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Russian forces need ‘at least a week’ before redeploying, UK says

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Russian forces in northern Ukraine have now fully withdrawn to neighboring Belarus and Russia, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Friday in an intelligence update.

“At least some of these forces will be transferred to East Ukraine to fight in the Donbas,” the ministry added. “Many of these forces will require significant replenishment before being ready to deploy further east with any mass redeployment from the north likely to take at least a week minimum.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

New wave of Covid cases hits U.S. officials, rattles Washington

Covid Test Coronavirus
Covid Test Coronavirus

A fresh wave of Covid-19 cases swept through the nation’s capital this week, striking officials at the highest levels of government and disrupting business just as President Joe Biden and other political leaders are urging a return to normalcy.

“Well, I think the tendency is that Covid-19 is totally behind us, but it isn’t,” said a maskless Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who represents the San Francisco Bay Area with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tested positive Thursday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes History As First Black Woman On Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS
Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS

The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, making her the first-ever Black woman and former public defender to serve on the nation’s highest court.

Jackson, 51, was confirmed in a 53-47 vote. Every Democrat voted for her, along with three Republicans: Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitt Romney (Utah). When the vote was over, the Senate chamber erupted with cheers and applause from the balcony.

Jackson’s confirmation seals a promise by President Joe Biden, who vowed as a candidate to pick a Black woman for the Supreme Court.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Congress Votes Overwhelmingly To Suspend Russia’s Trade Status And Ban Oil

capitol washington DC
capitol washington DC

Congress voted overwhelmingly Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, ratcheting up the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid reports of atrocities.

House action came after the Senate approved the two bills with 100-0 votes. The measures now go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Lawmakers overwhelmingly support the substance of the two bills, but they had languished for weeks in the Senate as lawmakers worked to hammer out the final details.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

StephCast Th 4-7-22

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Senate poised to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS
Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS

The Democratic-controlled Senate is poised to make history on Thursday by confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

She is all but guaranteed to win confirmation, with 53 senators having indicated their support in a procedural vote this week. The total included all 50 Democratic-voting senators, along with Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

U.S. And Allies Ramp Up Sanctions On Russia Over Bucha Atrocities

Ukraine War Bombing Destruction
Ukraine War Bombing Destruction

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced new sanctions on Russia, including on dictator Vladimir Putin’s adult daughters, following new evidence of war crimes by Russian soldiers in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The sickening brutality in Bucha has made tragically clear the despicable nature of the Putin regime,” a senior administration official said Wednesday morning on condition of anonymity. “Today, in alignment with [wealthy Group of Seven] allies and partners, we’re intensifying the most severe sanctions ever levied on a major economy.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

House Refers 2 More Top Trump Aides For Criminal Contempt Of Congress Charges

Two more top aides to former President Donald Trump could face as much as a year in jail after the House referred them to the Justice Department on Wednesday for refusing to honor subpoenas from the Jan. 6 committee.

The chamber voted on a near party-line vote, 220-203, that trade adviser Peter Navarro and social media director Dan Scavino should be prosecuted for their refusal to turn over requested documents and testify about their roles in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Eric Boehlert Dies: Media Critic For Media Matters & Salon, Founder Of Press Run Newsletter Killed In Bike Accident At 57

Eric Boehlert
Eric Boehlert

Eric Boehlert, a media critic devoted to calling out right-wing misinformation through his writing at Media Matters for America, Salon, Daily Kos and most recently as the founder of the Press Run website, died Monday in a bike accident. He was 57.

His death was announced on Twitter today by journalist and friend Soledad O’Brien, who called Boehlert “a fierce and fearless defender of the truth.” Boehlert was struck by a train while biking in Montclair, New Jersey; Montclair police reported yesterday that a man riding a bicycle was struck and killed by a New Jersey Transit train in Montclair on Monday evening.

Read the rest of the story at Deadline

StephCast W 4-6-22

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Secretary of Defense Throws Down With Matt Gaetz Over ‘Wokeism’ in Military: I’m Sorry ‘You’re Embarrassed By Your Country’

Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz

Sparks were flying between Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at Tuesday’s House Armed Services hearing where the Florida Republican accused Austin of overseeing a military force that is being overrun by “wokeism.”

Gaetz kicked off his time at the hearing by asking Austin about a speaker invited to the National Defense University named Thomas Piketty. The event was called “Responding to China: The Case for Global Justice and Democratic Socialism” and was held last month. Gaetz claimed the talk promoted “socialism as a strategy to combat China.”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

NATO ministers to meet; U.S. and E.U. to toughen sanctions

Russia Moscow
Russia Moscow

NATO foreign ministers will gather in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss support for Ukraine after the discovery of slain civilians in Kyiv’s suburbs spurred Western promises to punish the Kremlin.

Ukrainian leaders say the grim killings in Bucha are not the exception. The withdrawal of Russian forces in other parts of the country has revealed looted homes, torture and shootings of civilians, they said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that world powers do more, despite internal divisions in NATO over the extent to which Russia poses a direct threat to the alliance.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post

Zelenskyy: Russians Committing ‘Most Terrible War Crimes’ In Ukraine Since World War II

Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council remotely on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the alleged atrocities uncovered in recent days as Russian troops moved out of areas in northern Ukraine.

“The most terrible war crimes we’ve seen since the end of World War II are being committed,” Zelenskyy told the council assembled in New York City, later arguing that “Russia wants to turn Ukraine into silent slaves.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Ivanka Trump Testifies Before Jan. 6 House Select Committee

Ivanka Trump
Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s daughter and one of those closest to him during the insurrection at the Capitol, is testifying before the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said Tuesday afternoon that she had been answering investigators’ questions on a video teleconference since the morning and was not “chatty” but had been helpful to the probe.

“She came in on her own” and did not have to be subpoenaed, Thompson said.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

StephCast T 4-5-22

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StephCast M 4-4-22

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The Rude Pundit: The Only Thing Disney Is Grooming Your Kids for Is to Buy More Disney Shit

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

Of all the weird shit I’ve seen from the nutzoid Christian right (which, to be fair, is really just “the right”), the attacks on the Walt Disney Company over their criticism of Florida’s “Fuck You for Being Gay or Trans” bill and the state’s slimy, squamous governor, Ron DeSantis, as well as its declarations that its going to be friendlier to LGBTQ kids and adults in its parks and media, is some of the weirdest. I mean, it’s conservatives have bitched about pop culture for a long time, but this is just fucking weird. 

It’s not like Disney World is gonna feature “Baloo’s Buggering Boat” ride or “Ariel’s Muff-Diving Adventure” or “Goofy’s Groomin’ Gang” show. What Disney did was say that they would work to repeal the cruel law after they were criticized for not speaking out before its passage. It’s essentially what every single corporation does all the time with legislation. Oil companies try to overturn laws that want to do some small thing about climate change, which, you know, is way, way more important than whether or not a teacher tells his 1st graders about happy gay penguins.

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

Gap in Trump call logs on Jan. 6 ‘suspiciously tailored,’ Raskin says

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

The gap in phone logs in the official White House records on Jan. 6, 2021, is of “intense interest” to the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin said Sunday.

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Raskin (D-Md.) noted that a 7½-hour gap in the phone logs for President Donald Trump’s communications that day covers the period when the Capitol assault was taking place.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post

Zelenskyy makes appearance from Ukraine at Grammys

Ukraine Zelenskyy
Ukraine Zelenskyy

During music’s biggest night, John Legend and the Recording Academy took time to honor victims of the current war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to crowd in a pre-recorded message from Ukraine, where he told the crowd the importance of music and ongoing support for Ukraine. 

“The war doesn’t let us choose who survives and who stays in eternal silence,” Zelenskyy said in the pre-taped message “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals. Even to those who can’t hear them. But the music will break through anyway.”

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

California Governor Decries ‘Scourge’ Of Gun Violence After 6 Killed in Sacramento

gun guns violence bullet holes
gun guns violence bullet holes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) described a deadly mass shooting in Sacramento as a “horrendous act of gun violence” in a statement issued hours after six people were killed and 12 injured in a downtown entertainment district Sunday.

The massacre, which took place in the early hours of the morning, occurred in a section of the city filled with bars and restaurants, Sacramento news station KXTV reported. By Sunday evening, only one victim had been named by a relative, but no official identifications had been made.

Newsom said his administration will “continue to work closely with local and state law enforcement as we monitor the situation.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Images of dead civilians in Ukraine shake the world

Ukraine War Bombing Destruction
Ukraine War Bombing Destruction

“This is genocide.”

That’s how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the shocking images of at least 20 civilian men’s bodies strewn across the street in Bucha, northwest of the capital of Kyiv, following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the area.
 
Accounts of alleged Russian atrocities, including the horrific images of dead civilians captured by Agence France-Presse, are emerging as its forces retreat from areas near Kyiv following a failed bid to encircle the capital.
 

SM Happy Hour VideoCast 4-1-22 DNC Chair Jaime Harrison & Hal Sparks

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StephCast F 4-1-22

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Biden says Putin appears to be “self-isolated”

Putin Russia
Putin Russia

President Biden said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be “self-isolated” and “there appears to be some indication he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers” amid the war in Ukraine. But, Mr. Biden added, “I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”

A U.S. official said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials had determined that Putin was being misinformed by his advisers about the poor performance of Kremlin troops in Ukraine. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that recently declassified intelligence indicated that Putin is aware of the situation on information coming to him, and there is now persistent tension between him and senior Russian military officials. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

House Passes Bill to Limit Cost of Insulin to $35 a Month

syringe injection vaccine
syringe injection vaccine

A bill to limit the cost of insulin to $35 a month for most Americans who depend on it passed the House on Thursday, raising Democrats’ hopes that the party could take at least one step toward fulfilling its promise of lowering drug costs.

The bill attracted unanimous support from Democrats who voted, as well as from 12 Republicans, making it a rare piece of bipartisan policy legislation.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Senators close in on $10 billion COVID relief deal

Top Senate negotiators have said they are close to striking a deal to approve $10 billion in additional COVID relief funding with just a handful of days remaining before Congress heads off for a two-week recess.

The Senate is expected to consider the legislation as soon as next week.

The renewed effort to pass additional funding to address the coronavirus pandemic comes after negotiators were forced to strip $15.6 billion in aid from a government spending package earlier in March over disagreements about how the bill would be paid for.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Biden to release 1M barrels of oil a day from reserves in ‘wartime bridge’

President Joe Biden Flags Speech
President Joe Biden Flags Speech

President Joe Biden said he will release roughly 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for about six months in an effort to drive down record oil prices in what he called a “wartime bridge.”

The move could free up as much as 180 million barrels of oil, the largest release of U.S. reserves in history, with the first barrels coming on the market in May. The U.S. consumes more than 7 billion barrels of oil a year.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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StephCast W 3-30-22

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New Attacks Hit Northern Ukraine, Where Russia Had Vowed to Ease Its Assault

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

A day after peace talks yielded hope for an easing of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, local officials reported new attacks on Wednesday on the outskirts of Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv, two areas where Russia had vowed to sharply reduce combat operations.

The continuing attacks signaled that Moscow was in no hurry to end its war, now five weeks old, despite claims that it would de-escalate its operations after hours of talks on Tuesday with Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Biden signs bill named after Emmett Till making lynching a hate crime

Biden Oval Office
Biden Oval Office

President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act on Tuesday, making lynching a federal hate crimeafter more than a century of failed efforts in Congress to pass similar legislation.

The bill is named after Till, a 14-year-old Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and shot in the head in 1955 after a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, said he whistled at her and touched her in a Mississippi store.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Trump asks Putin to release any info about Hunter Biden

Amid widespread criticism of his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, former President Donald Trump publicly called on Putin on Tuesday to release any dirt he might have on Hunter Biden, the president’s son.

Trump, in an interview with Just the News, seized on an unsubstantiated claim about Biden’s obtaining a hefty payment from Elena Baturina, the former wife of the late former mayor of Moscow, and asked Putin to provide details.

“She gave him $3.5 million, so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” Trump said. “I think we should know that answer.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast T 3-29-22

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Trump probably broke the law in an effort to obstruct Jan. 6 proceedings, judge says

A federal judge presiding over a civil suit involving the House committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol found Monday that then-President Donald Trump “likely attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress” on Jan. 6, 2021, which would be a crime.

“The illegality of the plan was obvious,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote of Trump and lawyer John Eastman’s plan to have then-Vice President Mike Pence determine the results of the 2020 election.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Jan. 6 Committee Refers Criminal Contempt Charges For 2 More Trump Aides To House

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

The House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 committee on Monday recommended that the chamber refer criminal contempt charges for two more aides to former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for prosecution.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of two Republicans on the committee, said Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino played key roles in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and needed to provide information to the committee. “We have learned that President Trump and his team were warned, in advance and repeatedly, that the efforts they undertook to overturn the 2020 election would violate the law and our Constitution,” she said. “They were warned that Jan. 6 could and likely would turn violent.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Joe Biden: ‘No Apologies’ For Saying Putin ‘Cannot Remain In Power’

President Joe Biden Flags Speech
President Joe Biden Flags Speech

President Joe Biden on Monday stood by his belief that Vladimir Putinshould not be president of Russia, telling reporters that he made “no apologies” for his unscripted remarks.

“I’m not walking anything back,” the president said..

“I was expressing moral outrage, and I make no apologies,” he added.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Will Smith Apologizes Publicly To Chris Rock For Oscars Slap: ‘I Was Out Of Line’

Will Smith Oscars
Will Smith Oscars

Actor Will Smith apologized Monday to Chris Rock and everyone who witnessed his assault of the comedian at the Oscars on Sunday night.

“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” he wrote in an Instagram statement

“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

StephCast M 3-28-22

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StephCast F 3-25-22

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Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show

Virginia Thomas Clarence
Virginia Thomas Clarence

Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post

StephCast Th 3-24-22

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Biden Meets With NATO, G7 and E.U. as War Enters Second Month

Biden Salute Marine One Helicopter
Biden Salute Marine One Helicopter

President Biden arrived at NATO Headquarters on Thursday to begin a day of back-to-back summits in an effort to keep America’s allies united against Russia’s war in Ukraine. The president smiled as he was greeted by Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO. But he faces steep challenges as the allies seek new measures to punish President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the war.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Madeleine Albright, First Woman to Serve as Secretary of State, Dies at 84

Madeline Albright
Madeline Albright

Madeleine K. Albright, a child of Czech refugees who fled from Nazi invaders and Communist oppressors and then landed in the United States, where she flourished as a diplomat and the first woman to serve as secretary of state, died on Wednesday in Washington. She was 84.

The cause was cancer, her daughter Anne said.

Enveloped by a veil of family secrets hidden from her for most of her life, Ms. Albright rose to power and fame as a brilliant analyst of world affairs and a White House counselor on national security. Under President Bill Clinton, she became the country’s representative to the United Nations (1993-97) and secretary of state (1997-2001), making her the highest-ranking woman in the history of American government at the time.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

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Ketanji Brown Jackson Weathers a Final Bruising Day of Questions

Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS
Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson emerged on Wednesday from two grueling days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee having weathered escalating Republican attacks on her record but leaving Democrats confident that she would become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.

Questioning of President Biden’s nominee by Republicans grew increasingly hostile as they stepped up their criticism of what they portrayed as a pattern of leniency in her sentencing of child sex abusers and tried to paint her as a liberal on issues of race, gender, guns and abortion rights.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

StephCast W 3-23-22

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki tests positive for Covid

Jen Psali
Jen Psali

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she tested positive for Covid on Tuesday and will not accompany the president on his coming trip to Europe.

Psaki disclosed her infection in a series of tweets, saying she had two socially distanced meetings with President Joe Biden and adding that “he is not considered a close contact as defined by CDC guidance.”

Biden tested negative by PCR test Tuesday, Psaki added.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden Plans Sanctions on Russian Lawmakers as He Heads to Europe

Biden Speaking
Biden Speaking

President Biden will announce sanctions this week on hundreds of members of Russia’s lower house of Parliament, according to a White House official familiar with the announcement, as the United States and its allies reach for even stronger measures to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his monthlong invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement is scheduled to be made during a series of global summits in Europe on Thursday, when Mr. Biden will press Western leaders for even more aggressive economic actions against Russia as its forces continue to rain destruction on cities in Ukraine.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

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What to Watch For on Day 3 of Jackson’s Confirmation Hearing

Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS
Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is headed into a final round of questioning in her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Wednesday after a relatively straightforward two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee that offered few surprises.

When the hearing begins at 9 a.m., the last two of the committee’s 22 senators will conduct their initial 30-minute rounds of questioning before each senator will then have a follow-up 20-minute questioning period.

But as senators prepare for their final opportunity to formally interview Judge Jackson, there appeared to be little ground left to tread in scrutinizing her background after a hearing that stretched across 13 hours on Tuesday.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

StephCast T 3-22-22

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Zelenskyy says trapped Ukrainians will ‘fight till the end,’ Pentagon says Russians have been ‘flummoxed’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ukraine

Ukraine has rejected an ultimatum to surrender its besieged port city of Mariupol to Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Eurovision News that ultimatums won’t work as trapped Ukrainians will “fight till the end.”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said Ukrainian forces — including civilians — have put up a strong resistance against Russian forces, and the Kremlin is struggling to achieve its goals in Ukraine. “I think what we’re seeing here is the Russians have been flummoxed, they’ve been frustrated,” said Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.

Read the rest of the story at CNBC

Russia may target U.S. businesses with cyberattacks, Biden warns

computer virus attack
computer virus attack

President Joe Biden urged U.S. businesses Monday to take added precautions amid “evolving” intelligence that Russia could target American companies with cyberattacks.

“The magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential, and it’s coming. The federal government is doing its part to get ready,” Biden said while speaking to the Business Roundtable CEO quarterly meeting in Washington.

He called on companies to invest “as much as you can” in beefing up technological capacity to guard against potential attacks.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Ketanji Brown Jackson faces 4th Senate grilling as Republicans preview attacks

Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS
Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS

For Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, the easiest part of a Senate confirmation hearing is over. Next come the questions — 19 hours of them over two days.

Jackson, 51, was sworn in Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivering an opening statement and reintroducing herself to the nation.

“I hope that you will see how much I love our country, and the Constitution and the rights that make us free,” she told the senators who will vote on her historic nomination.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Charlie Pierce: The Senatorial Speeches at the Beginning of Supreme Court Nomination Hearings Should Be Sh*tcanned

Charlie Pierce Esquire
Charlie Pierce Esquire

‘If I were king of the forest, I would pass a rule for the Senate by which every opening statement by any senator in a confirmation hearing would be sent in writing to the committee chairman and entered into the record as written. That way, the first day of the hearings would consist of the nominee’s opening statement and then everybody could go home for the day. I came to this conclusion while watching the beginning session of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Herewith, my evaluation of the pros and cons of such a change.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

StephCast M 3-21-22

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas hospitalized with flu-like symptoms

Clarence Thomas SCOTUS
Clarence Thomas SCOTUS

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, the court said in a statement Sunday.

Thomas, 73, was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, part of the Johns Hopkins Health System, on Friday night, court officials said.

Tests showed he had an infection, and he has been receiving intravenous antibiotics, according to the court’s statement.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Senate to begin historic Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

Senate hearings are set to take place this week in a historic confirmation battle over the first Black woman ever nominated to serve on the Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden’s pick, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, goes before the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee on Monday for a high-stakes showdown to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer and win a lifetime appointment to the country’s highest court.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Ukraine rejects Kremlin’s call to surrender Mariupol amid intense street fighting

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

An increasingly bloody onslaught in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has descended into street-by-street guerrilla warfare, as Moscow vies to claim its first strategic victory of the war. Amid bombings on civilian buildings and claims of forced deportations, Russian officials on Sunday called for Ukrainian troops to lay down arms and flee the city during a two-hour window Monday morning or face further assaults and a “military tribunal.” Ukraine’s deputy prime minister rejected the calls to surrender.

“Ukrainian armed units and foreign mercenaries will be able to leave the city without weapons and munitions along a route agreed with Ukraine from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Moscow time,” said the chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, according to Moscow’s official news agency, Tass.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post

Eric Boehlert: The media’s reckless “no-fly zone” coverage

On the eve of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked no fewer than six times at the daily press briefing if the Biden administration would grant Zelensky’s military request of creating a “no-fly zone” over the bombarded country.

Ever since Russia invaded, the administration has made clear there’s no chance that the U.S. or NATO is going to create a no-fly zone, because that would mean direct warfare with a nuclear power inside Russia.

“First thing that we would do in order to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be to send the U.S. military to attack military units inside Russia–the anti-aircraft batteries that are there, the anti-aircraft artillery,” Democratic Congressman Jim Himes recently explained. “United States Air Force planes would be killing thousands of Russian military members inside Russia.”

Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at and subscribe to PressRun Media

The Rude Pundit: Everything Is There for Democrats to Wreck Republicans in the Midterms and Beyond

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Rick Scott, GOP Senator from Florida and the last thing you see before you’re dropped into Dip, put out a pamphlet of conservative fantasies that was essentially spanking material for Federalist interns. In it, he proposed that “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” Now, you might read that and think, “So…no one can plan anything for more than five years out because shit might just get shoved back up Congress’s ass and we all have to deal with it?” You might also think about laws that needed to be renewed that weren’t or were delayed, like the assault weapons ban or the just-reauthorized (after a dickish delay) Violence Against Women Act. 

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

SM Happy Hour Video Podcast with Rep. Jake Auchincloss & Glenn Kirschner

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StephCast F 3-18-22

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Moderna asks FDA to authorize second booster for adults

Vaccine mRNA Pfizer Moderna
Vaccine mRNA Pfizer Moderna

Drugmaker Moderna asked the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to authorize a fourth shot of its Covid-19vaccine as a booster dose for all adults.

The request is broader than rival pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s request earlier this week for the regulator to approve a booster shot for all seniors.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Russian attacks hit near Lviv in western Ukraine

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Ukrainian cities remained under siege Friday as Russian attackscontinued for the fourth week, pushing farther west in Ukraine. Local officials said that several missiles destroyed buildings at an aircraft repair facility near the airport in Lviv, which is about around 40 miles from the border with Poland.

President Joe Biden is expected to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday morning amid ongoing efforts to distance China from Russia. U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed concern that China could come to the aid of Russia, which is increasingly isolated from global markets amid harsh sanctions from the West.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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US sets the stage for contentious Biden call with China’s Xi today

China Chinese Flag
China Chinese Flag

Blunt US rhetoric heading into President Joe Biden’s call with Chinese President Xi Jinping suggests that a meeting of the minds on Russia’s brutality in Ukraine is unlikely, and reflects the current bitter tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Biden and Xi are due to speak at 9 a.m. ET Friday, with the US setting the stage for a stern warning that Chinese firms would pay a serious price if the Beijing government heeds Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pleas for military and economic aid. The call will find the US surmounting one of its deepest-set foreign policy fears — risking an open clash with China while simultaneously facing down Russia — in another extraordinary geopolitical shuffle triggered by the Ukraine war. It also puts Biden in the odd position of seeking the tacit cooperation of the nation seen as America’s most powerful rising foe to suppress its historic Cold War rival of the second half of the 20th century.
 
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StephCast Th 3-17-22

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Irish leader tests positive for COVID during visit to DC

Martin — also referred to as Ireland’s taoiseach — was attending the Ireland Funds 30th National Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington when he tested positive, ahead of planned St. Patrick’s Day celebrations Thursday with U.S. leaders.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Russia bombs theater where hundreds sought shelter and ‘children’ was written on grounds

Ukraine War Bombing Destruction
Ukraine War Bombing Destruction

A theater where hundreds of people had taken shelter in Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday, according to local authorities, as hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped in the coastal Ukrainian city that has been encircled for weeks by Russian forces.

Mariupol City Council, who shared an image of the destroyed building, said Russian forces had “purposefully and cynically destroyed the Drama Theater in the heart of Mariupol.”
“The plane dropped a bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding,” it said.
 

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FSTV Steph In Person
FSTV Steph In Person

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Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal,’ commits to new military aid to Ukraine

Biden Speaking
Biden Speaking

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an additional $800 million in military support for Ukraine after its president pleaded with Congress to do more to help it defend itself against the military onslaught from Russia.

Speaking at the White House, Biden said the new aid package would drastically increase the amount of military support going to Ukraine to include 800 anti-aircraft systems, 9,000 anti-armor systems, 7,000 small arms like shotguns and grenade launchers, as well as drones and other military equipment.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

StephCast W 3-16-22

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Senate votes to make daylight saving time permanent

Daylight Saving Clock
Daylight Saving Clock

The Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent in the U.S. starting next year.

The bill, called The Sunshine Protection Act, was passed by unanimous consent, meaning no senators opposed it. If it is enacted, Americans would no longer need to change their clocks twice a year.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff tests positive for Covid

covid coronavirus world
covid coronavirus world

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for Covid on Tuesday, prompting Vice President Kamala Harris to skip an evening event “out of an abundance of caution,” her office said.

Harris tested negative Tuesday, her office said.

“Earlier today, the Second Gentleman tested positive for COVID-19,” Sabrina Singh, Harris’ deputy press secretary, said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, the Vice President will not participate in tonight’s event. The Vice President tested negative for COVID-19 today and will continue to test.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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FSTV Plant A Tree

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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to plead for more US help in virtual address to Congress

Ukraine Zelenskyy
Ukraine Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to deliver a historic, virtual address to Congress on Wednesday to plead with the U.S. to do more to help stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Although it’s unclear whether Zelenskyy will pressure President Joe Biden by name to have NATO impose a no-fly zone, Biden will be watching Zelenskyy’s address at 9 a.m., White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, and will also give an address of his own afterward, detailing what the U.S. is doing for “Ukrainian security assistance.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

StephCast T 3-15-22

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Employee bursts onto live Russian state TV to denounce war: ‘They are lying to you here’

A woman burst onto the set of Russian state TV’s flagship evening news program Monday, chanting “stop the war” and denouncing government “propaganda” — a striking moment of public protest as the Kremlin cracks down on any criticism of its invasion in Ukraine.

OVD-Info, a human rights group that tracks protest activity and detentions in Russia, identified the woman as Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor and producer with the broadcaster, and said she has been detained. Before storming the set of Channel One, Ovsyannikova recorded a video message in which she said, “What is going on in Ukraine is a crime.”

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post

COVID spike in Europe could signal increase in U.S.

covid coronavirus
covid coronavirus

Coronavirus cases are once again surging in several European countries, potentially signaling that the U.S. will soon experience another spike as well.

Between the lines: Several factors are likely at play, including relaxed mitigation measures, the spread of the B.A.2 variant and waning vaccine protection, tweeted Scripps Research’s Eric Topol.

Read the rest of the story at Axios

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Latest talks went ‘pretty good,’ will continue tomorrow, Zelenskyy says

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy updated the status of negotiations with Russia in his latest address Monday, saying the latest talks went “pretty good” and will continue tomorrow.

Zelenskyy also addressed Russian troops, telling them they would be treated “decently” should they surrender.

“On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I give you a chance — chance to survive,” Zelenskyy said. “You surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated. As people, decently.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Charlie Pierce: Now Trump Wants to Ruin the Legacy of ‘The Dude’

Charlie Pierce Esquire
Charlie Pierce Esquire

El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago, the leader of the Republican Party and its presumptive presidential nominee, held another wankfest over the weekend, this one in South Carolina, the home office of American sedition. It was the usual bag of rhetorical horrors, albeit cut a bit short because the weather was lousy. However, he rang a change that was frankly quite ominous.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

StephCast M 3-14-22

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Pentagon’s John Kirby says latest airstrike indicates Russian forces are ‘broadening their target sets’

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Russian forces are “broadening their target sets” after rockets hit a Ukrainian military base near the Polish border overnight.

“Look, this is the third now military facility or airfield that the Russians had struck in western Ukraine in just the last couple of days,” Kirby told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, on Sunday. “So, clearly, at least from an airstrike perspective, they’re broadening their target sets.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Russia and Ukraine Set to Meet After Brutal Weekend of Fighting

Ukraine War Bombing Destruction
Ukraine War Bombing Destruction

The two sides expressed cautious optimism ahead of talks on Monday. Russia expanded its range of attacks, killing 35 at a base near Poland’s border. Moscow asked China for aid for the war, U.S. officials said.

Read the latest updates at The New York Times

Barack Obama says he tested positive for COVID-19

Former President Barack Obama said Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is “feeling fine” other than a scratchy throat. 

Both the 60-year-old Obama and his wife Michelle Obama are fully vaccinated and boosted, the former president said. Michelle Obama has tested negative. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

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MSNBC’s Glenn Kirschner Says on “Stephanie Miller”: ‘We Have Enough Evidence’: Time for DoJ ‘To Step Up’ And Prosecute Trump Criminally

Mediaite M
Mediaite M

Former federal prosecutor and current MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner told SiriusXM host Stephanie Miller that the other branches have taken the lead for too long and it’s “time for the Department of Justice to step up” and prosecute former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday’s episode of  The Stephanie Miller Show, the popular liberal host connected the current situation in Ukraine with the events that led to both of Trump’s impeachments, and asked Kirschner if he thinks the former president will ever be held accountable.

Read the story and see the video at Mediaite

Glenn Kirschner: ‘We Have Enough Evidence’: Time for DoJ ‘To Step Up’ And Prosecute Trump Criminally

Former federal prosecutor and current MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner told SiriusXM host Stephanie Miller that the other branches have taken the lead for too long and it’s “time for the Department of Justice to step up” and prosecute former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday’s episode of  The Stephanie Miller Show, the popular liberal host connected the current situation in Ukraine with the events that led to both of Trump’s impeachments, and asked Kirschner if he thinks the former president will ever be held accountable.

Read the story and see the video at Mediaite.

Eric Boehlert: Murdoch hounded by lawsuits that could cost Fox News billions

Eric Boehlert
Eric Boehlert

Rupert Murdoch for years has enjoyed a Trump-like ability to avoid responsibility for the avalanche of lies he promotes. That all may be changing thanks to a pair of billion-dollar defamation lawsuits surrounding Trump’s Big Lie campaign — Murdoch appears powerless to stop the looming legal reckoning.

This week, Justice David Cohen of State Supreme Court in Manhattan issued a stinging rebuke of Fox News. Denying the network’s attempt to dismiss a $2.7 billion lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, the election technology company that Fox smeared as part of Trump’s Big Lie offensive following the 2020 campaign, Cohen waved off Murdoch’s attorneys.

Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at and subscribe to PressRun Media

The Rude Pundit: Democrats Need to Embrace Abortion Rights Because Republicans Want to Kill Women

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

If there’s one thing that you can count on, it’s that crazy-ass GOP motherfuckers who are elected to GOP-majority state legislatures will propose crazy-ass motherfucking legislation that sounds like something conjured by a sweaty Heritage Foundation intern who’s trying to impress the boss. You can count on a bunch of people getting upset about the crazy-ass legislation and you can count on it not passing or even making it out of committee because there are enough semi-rational Republicans to tell them to fuck all the way off with that distraction. 

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

SM Happy Hour Videocast 3-11-21 Rep. Ruben Gallego & Jen Kirkman

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StephCast 3-11-21

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Zelensky Swears Vengeance on Russian TV Propagandists Who Lied About ‘War Crimes’ on Mariupol Hospital

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised justice against the Russian media for lying about the deadly airstrike their military just committed on a maternity and children’s hospital.

Zelensky posted a video statement on Telegram, confirming the Mariupol hospital attack wounded 17 people and killed 3, including a young girl. The Ukrainian president spoke of how the attack was covered by Russian television, “but not a word of truth was said. The Russians were lied to that there had been no patients at the hospital.”

Zelensky’s remarks come as the Russian government falsely claims they aren’t attacking civilian targets. They have also claimed with no evidence that the hospital was empty of civilians because it had already been taken over by Ukrainian radicals.

Michael Flynn testifies in closed-door meeting with Jan. 6 committee

capitol riot insurrection
capitol riot insurrection

WASHINGTON — Michael Flynn appeared before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Thursday, in response to a subpoena asking him to testify about an Oval Office meeting at which, the panel said, then-President Donald Trump and others discussed seizing voting machines, several people familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Flynn did not answer the committee’s questions, exercising his 5th Amendment right on the advice of counsel, his lead attorney, David Warrington, said in a statement.

 

As Inflation Soars, So Do Corporate Profits

dollars money bills
dollars money bills

Consumer prices increased 7.9% in February compared with a year earlier, according to the federal government’s latest estimate, the fastest inflation surge since the early 1980s.

But not everybody is feeling the squeeze of higher prices in the same way. While consumer sentiment has cratered, corporate profits have soared as businesses reap the rewards of their customers’ continued willingness to pay more.

The top 30 companies in the major industry categories of the consumer price index have raised prices while collectively boosting their profits by $151 billion, according to the liberal watchdog group Accountable.US, which compared the firms’ latest yearly and quarterly earnings reports with the previous year’s filings.

The companies also bought back an additional $28 billion of their own shares, a strategy to boost the stock price, which also happens to boost executive compensation.

 

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StephCast 3-10-21

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Trump’s plane forced to make an emergency landing: report

Politico reported Wednesday that former President Donald Trump’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing after leaving a Republican Party donor retreat in New Orleans over the weekend.

The Trump plane took off for Mar-a-Lago and was in the air somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes when one of the engines failed. The pilot then returned to the airport.

The communications between air traffic control and the Trump pilot recorded there was a problem of an “emergency nature,” the report said, citing someone briefed on the recording.

Once Trump landed and it became clear that his plane couldn’t fly, the Republican Party “scrambled” to find a GOP donor who would lend Trump their plane.

Jan. 6 committee scores big legal win over John Eastman as judge says he’ll review emails

Trump Dumb
Trump Dumb
The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th riots at the United States Capitol scored a big win in its dispute with notorious “coup memo” attorney John Eastman.

United States District Judge for the Central District of California David O. Carter on Wednesday said he would review Eastman’s emails to determine the validity of his attorney-client privilege claims about his interactions with former President Donald Trump.

“The circumstances of this case favor review [of the emails],” Carter wrote. “In part due to the parties’ cooperation to exclude extraneous emails, there are only 111 challenged documents between January 4-7, 2021. As the Court has previously noted, the evidence suggests that communications from those days are essential to the Select Committee’s pressing investigation.”

Eastman had hoped that Carter would simply reject the committee’s request and rule that they are not entitled to see communications between an attorney and his client.

Zelensky Makes Desperate Plea For International Help After Russia Bombs Children’s Hospital: ‘You Seem To Be Losing Humanity’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky shared grim footage of what he says is what is left of a children’s hospital in Mariupol after it was hit by a Russian airstrike.

Ukraine’s regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Wednesday that the airstrike was during an agreed ceasefire that was meant to allow the evacuation of civilians from besieged Mariupol, which is in the throws of a deteriorating humanitarian catastrophe as the large city is without water and basic services.

Kyrylenko said that seventeen people were wounded in the attack, including women in labor, reported Reuters on Wednesday.

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StephCast 3-9-21

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Ukraine Refugee Count Reaches A Staggering 2 Million In Escape From Russian Invasion

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

GENEVA — The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine reached 2 million on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, the fastest exodus Europe has seen since World War II.

“Today the outflow of refugees from Ukraine reaches two million people. Two million,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on Twitter.

The update came as a new effort to evacuate civilians along safe corridors finally got underway Tuesday. The route out of the eastern city of Sumy was one of five promised by the Russians to offer civilians a way to escape the Russian onslaught.

Infamous MAGA rioter found guilty of all charges after his son testified against him at blockbuster trial

gavel courtroom trial
gavel courtroom trial
‘Traitors get shot’: Capitol rioter accused of threatening kids could become first to stand trial

After just a few hours, Texan Guy Reffitt was found guilty on all charges for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. His case was the first among the hundreds to not do a plea deal and go to a public trial.

As CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane tweeted, the five charges in which he was found guilty are obstruction, entering with a firearm, obstructing officers and transporting a firearm in furtherance of civil disorder.

The jury began deliberating after 10:30 a.m. EST, but the judge gave them time for lunch. Hours after their return, they had a verdict.

Longtime Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio charged with conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack on Capitol

police protest violence riot
police protest violence riot

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a leader of the extremist group the Proud Boys, has been indicted on a conspiracy charge in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tarrio, 38, who lives in Miami, joins Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes as the two most high-profile individuals charged by the Justice Department in connection with the attack. In recent months, Tarrio has described himself as a former leader of the Proud Boys.

The charge against him marks another major move in the multi-pronged investigation by the Justice Department and FBI of the extremist groups who allegedly played large roles in the Jan. 6 violence. From the start of the investigation — the largest in the FBI’s history in terms of charged suspects — agents have focused on the role that the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers allegedly played in driving the confrontation between supporters of then-President Donald Trump and police stationed outside the Capitol.

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StephCast 3-8-22

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Ukraine Accuses Russia Of ‘Medieval Siege’ Tactics

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced yet another limited cease-fire and the establishment of safe corridors to allow civilians to flee some besieged Ukrainian cities Monday. But the evacuation routes led mostly to Russia and its ally Belarus, drawing withering criticism from Ukraine and others.

Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of resorting to “medieval siege” tactics in places, and in one of the most desperately encircled cities, the southern port of Mariupol, there were no immediate signs of an evacuation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces continued to pummel some cities with rockets even after the announcement of corridors, and fierce fighting raged in places, indicating there would be no wider cessation of hostilities.

Russia Snubs UN Court Hearings In Case Brought By Ukraine

Russia Moscow
Russia Moscow

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Russia has snubbed a hearing at the United Nations’ top court into a legal bid by Kyiv to halt Moscow’s devastating invasion of Ukraine.

A row of seats reserved for Russian lawyers at the International Court of Justice was empty Monday morning as the hearing opened.

The court’s president, American judge Joan E. Donoghue, said Russia’s ambassador to the Netherlands informed judges that “his government did not intend to participate in the oral proceedings.” The hearing went ahead without the Russian delegation.

Supreme Court Rejects Legal Theory That Would Eviscerate Voting Rights – For Now

Supreme Court SCOTUS
Supreme Court SCOTUS

Republicans in North Carolina had asked the court to strike down a map drawn by state courts after finding that the original map passed by the Republican legislature was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander under the state constitution. In Pennsylvania, Republicans wanted to strike down a state court-drawn map implemented after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed the map passed by the Republican-majority legislature.

In doing so, the Supreme Court refused to accept a radical legal theory known as the independent state legislature doctrine that could have upended redistricting and voting rights across the country.

There Is No Excuse for Failure to Charge Trump for His Role on January 6

The Justice Department cannot be so afraid of losing a case—or of political blowback—it fails to do its duty.

That filing that the lawyers for the congressional committee looking into the events of January 6 dropped in court last week, part of the committee’s continuing effort to get John Eastman to turn over email correspondence, seems to have fallen quite hard on the heads of congressional Republicans. The whole smoke-fire thing has a new salience in their minds, and they’re lashing out, poor dears.

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StephCast M 3-7-21

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Putin’s U.S. Stooges Must Be Called Out

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

I gotta admit one thought that passed through my mind after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I wondered what would happen if Putin did succeed in winning quickly, if he came in and Ukraine surrendered and it was over in a day, as he had delusionally hoped, thus affirming the worship that way too many Americans have for him. I wondered what if he then said he wanted to take over the United States and I thought about all the armed fucknuts willingly to say they’d rather be led by Putin than Joe Biden and I wondered about the Republican Party, with all the Putin apologists and tyranny humpers, and I thought, “Fuck me. He might have a shot. At least he’d end up stirring up more shit than he has already.”

But the myth of Putin, the smart, savvy strategist and technocrat, has been bombed into pieces by a fiasco of an invasion where the best possible outcome is seeming like Russia not completely demolishing the country and massacring people by the thousands. Even that awful outcome, though, is quickly fading as Putin acts like a freaked-out bear who got stuck in Walmart and decides to just fuck everything up, hump the mannequins, and shit on the torn up corpses of the employees. Unless Putin is removed in some way, I’m not even sure at this point that we’re not looking at the use of some kind of nukes, from dirty bomb to full-scale ICBM world fuckage. I don’t think that will happen, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility because that motherfucker is crazier than a shithouse rat right now. 

DeSantis bullies teenagers and the press plays dumb

Eric Boehlert
Eric Boehlert

Barrelling into camera view at full speed on Wednesday, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lit into a group of assembled Tampa area students from Middleton High School who were selected to stand behind him while he announced a $20 million investment in cybersecurity workforce education. With his voice raised and his index finger pointed, he bullied and mocked the teenagers who opted to wear masks inside the school.

“You do not have to wear those masks,” the angry governor announced. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it fine, but this is ridiculous.” He then turned to the lectern, let out an dramatic, annoyed huff, shook his head and began the press conference.

Trump muses about a really bad — and evidently illegal — idea to bomb Russia using Chinese flags

As Russia was ramping up its invasion of Ukraine, former president Donald Trump chose the moment to hail President Vladimir Putin’s moves as “savvy” and “genius.” Now the military strategist former president has weighed in with his own idea for what the United States could do next. And it’s … something.

At a speech in New Orleans on Saturday night, Trump mused that we could simply apply Chinese flags to our F-22s and then “bomb the s–t out of Russia,”setting off a conflict between those two countries.

American Express, Netflix, TikTok Join Growing List of Companies Suspending Business Operations in Russia

Putin Russia
Putin Russia

American Express, Netflix, and TikTok have joined a long and comprehensive list of companies who have suspended their business operations in Russia in response to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy Asked For More Lethal Aid, No-Fly Zone In Call With U.S. Congress

Experts have warned that a no-fly zone would amount to a U.S. declaration of war against nuclear-armed Russia.

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StephCast F 3-4-22

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Justice Department ‘going after Putin’s cronies and Russian oligarchs’

Russia Moscow
Russia Moscow

A top Justice Department official has a stern warning for Russian oligarchs who attempt to evade U.S. sanctions: Nobody is out of the DOJ’s reach.

“The point of going after Putin’s cronies and Russian oligarchs who seek to violate our laws and shield their assets is to say that nobody is beyond the reach of our system of justice, beyond the reach of our work and cooperation with our allies, and that these cronies and oligarchs who seek to support and bolster the Russian regime shouldn’t be able to get away with that while people are dying,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told ABC News’ Byron Pitts.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Kimberly Guilfoyle, Don Jr.’s Girlfriend

Kimberly Guilfoyle
Kimberly Guilfoyle

The House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday subpoenaed Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of former President Donald Trump’s eldest son who was in the Oval Office at the time Trump held his final conversation with his vice president trying to make Mike Penceoverturn the election for him.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said Guilfoyle’s presence in the White House the morning of the attack on the Capitol, her appearance at Trump’s rally that day and her involvement in raising money for it all made her an important witness.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Russian forces seize key Ukrainian nuclear plant after shelling sparks fire amid southern gains

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

Russian forces took control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant Friday after shelling sparked a fire and fears of nuclear meltdown.

The blaze at the Zaporizhzhia plant, located in Ukraine’s southeast, was extinguished early Friday but not before it spread fears of catastrophic fallout across the continent.

The crisis came as Russian forces made gains in the country’s south and Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis worsened, with residential areas increasingly coming under siege despite some progress in talks.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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StephCast Th 3-3-22

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FL Gov. Ron DeSantis bullied a group of high school students for wearing masks

Ron DeSantis is apparently not above scolding high school students to make his, uh, point about Covid-19.

The Florida Republican governor approached a group of students wearing masks who were standing behind a podium at the University of South Florida, where he was scheduled for a news conference Wednesday.
 
“You do not have to wear those masks. I mean please take them off,” DeSantis said to, at first, polite laughter. But he wasn’t kidding around.
 

1 million flee Ukraine as Russian assault hits key cities and fuels exodus

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

One million people have fled Ukraine in a rapid exodus after a week of war, with Russia’s military bombarding key cities across the country in an effort to overcome staunch resistance to their invasion.

The conflict has fueled a growing humanitarian crisis in Europe and left those who have remained in Ukraine facing an intensifying assault from the air and ground.

But the mileslong Russian military convoy threatening the Ukrainian capital has made little progress over the last three days, with Russian forces struggling to overcome fierce defense and their own logistical issues in their northern advance. They appear to have had more success in the south, with two key port cities struggling to hold out.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Trump Engaged In ‘Criminal Conspiracy’ Says Jan. 6 Committee

The House Committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection said Wednesday night that its evidence shows former President Donald Trump and his associates engaged in a “criminal conspiracy” to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election, spread false information about it and pressured state officials to overturn the results.

The committee made the claims in a filing in response to a lawsuit by Trump adviser John Eastman. Eastman, a lawyer who was consulting with Trump as he attempted to overturn the election, is trying to withhold documents from the committee as it investigates the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The committee argued there is a legal exception allowing the disclosure of communications regarding ongoing or future crimes.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

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StephCast W 3-2-22

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Abbott, O’Rourke to face off in Texas governor’s race after yesterday’s primary elections

Texas Snow Flag
Texas Snow Flag

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will face Democrat Beto O’Rourke this fall in his bid for a third term in November after the two won their respective primaries, NBC News projects.

Abbott, a Republican, faced several challengers on his right but was able to easily secure the nomination, thanks in part to the support of former President Donald Trump. O’Rourke, a former presidential candidate who lost a close Senate race in 2018, easily won his primary.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden uses State of the Union to push “unity agenda” and says Russia will pay “high price” for Ukraine invasion

President Joe Biden Flags Speech
President Joe Biden Flags Speech

In a State of the Union speech that brought both houses of Congress back to the Capitol, President Biden emphasized what unites the country while trying to reassure Americans worried about the Ukraine crisis, inflation and gas prices that “we are going to be OK.” 

But it wasn’t all unity and bipartisan support: Mr. Biden acknowledged that inflation is “robbing” Americans of economic gains. He also pushed his domestic policy agenda, saying Congress needed to pass key pieces of his Build Back Better agenda. He did not use the words “Build Back Better” together, since the plan has been stalled in the Senate. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky vows to hold fast as Russia’s forces advance and Putin’s missiles rain down

Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that almost 6,000 members of Russia’s invading force had been killed as Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war against Ukraine hit the one-week mark. Zelensky vowed that Russia would not topple his government by pummeling Ukraine’s cities and civilians with missiles, but with pressure from unprecedented international sanctions against Moscow swelling by the day, that appeared to be Putin’s strategy.

Russia’s invading forces continue to push slowly deeper into Ukrainian territory, claiming “full control” on Wednesday of the city of Kherson on the southern coast, about 100 miles east of the key port of Odesa. U.S. officials say a mammoth column of Russian troops and weapons currently about 20 miles north of Kyiv could encircle the capital city within a week and then seize it within a month.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

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StephCast 3-1-22

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GOP leaders condemn Greene, Gosar for attending white nationalist event

Days after GOP Reps. Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared at an event organized by a white nationalist, Republican party leaders are condemning them for attending.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement Monday criticizing white supremacist hate.

“There’s no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism,” McConnell said in a statement first reported by Politico.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Ukraine, economy to take center stage in Biden’s State of the Union address tonight

President Joe Biden Flags Speech
President Joe Biden Flags Speech

It was one of the most consequential weeks of President Joe Biden’s presidency, and it came right before his first State of the Union address to Congress.

Biden’s 9 p.m. ET speech, to be carried live on national television and seen around the world, will be delivered just days after Russia invaded Ukraine – and days after he nominated the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

But he’ll also be speaking to Americans suffering from historic inflation as the nation continues to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

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Russian convoy closes in on Kyiv as Ukraine cities face intense shelling

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

A 40-mile long Russian military convoy moved toward Kyiv Tuesday, threatening Ukraine’s capital as increasingly heavy shelling hit major cities across the country.

U.S. officials said they feared Russian President Vladimir Putin, frustrated by his military’s struggles in Ukraine, may see an escalation of violence as his only option.

Facing fierce resistance on the ground, the Kremlin appeared to be moving toward an escalation of its assault from the air.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Charlie Pierce: Millions of Kids Are Back in Poverty Because Joe Manchin Bought the Wingnut Clichés

Charlie Pierce Esquire
Charlie Pierce Esquire

The pandemic forced upon the savants of the American economy an uncomfortable truth. For all the talk of bootstraps and deficits, hammocks and debt, if you give poor people more money, their lives will generally improve because they will become less poor. This, of course, is a corollary to the shebeen’s First Law of Economics: Fck The Deficit. People Got No Jobs. People Got No Money. And if you take that money away, these people become more poor again.

Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics

StephCast M 2-28-22

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‘I’ve got morons on my team’: Romney blasts fellow GOP members for attending White nationalist event and supporting Putin

Romney
Romney

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah on Sunday blasted his fellow GOP members who attended a White nationalist event and those who support Russia President Vladimir Putin as the country invades Ukraine.

“Look, there is no place in either political party for this White nationalism or racism. It’s simply wrong … it’s evil as well,” Romney told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “(Rep.) Marjorie Taylor Greene and (Rep.) Paul Gosar, I don’t know them, but I’m reminded of that old line from the ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ movie where – where one character says, ‘Morons, I’ve got morons on my team.’ And I have to think anybody that would sit down with White nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points.”
 

Capitol ditches mask requirement ahead of State of the Union

Face coverings are now optional for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, as Congress is lifting its mask requirement on the House floor after federal regulators eased guidelines last week in a rethinking of the nation’s strategy to adapt to living with a more manageable COVID-19.

Congress’ Office of the Attending Physician announced the policy change Sunday, lifting a requirement that has been in place for much of the past two years and had become a partisan flashpoint on Capitol Hill. The change ahead of the speech will avoid a potential disruptive display of national tensions and frustration as Biden tries to nudge the country to move beyond the pandemic.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Ukraine pushes for cease-fire in Russia talks as fighting rages and sanctions hit Putin’s economy

Russian and Ukrainian officials were set to sit down for talks on Monday even as fighting raged around key Ukrainian cities and Russian President Vladimir Putin confronted the fallout from Western sanctions.

Ukraine said that it would push for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country. Its delegation for the talks included Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, among other officials.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Harry Litman: The consequential — and inconsequential — nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court

Over the course of 29 days since Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson assumed the front-runner’s position to replace him. On Friday morning President Biden named her his nominee, and if confirmed she will become the first Black woman on the court.

Jackson, 51, is not the head-and-shoulders most credentialed of the three leading candidates that were under consideration — Leondra Kruger, a California Supreme Court justice, has an equally impressive resume, and at age 45, she would have the longest potential term on the court. Nor does Jackson have the political muscle of the other stellar candidate, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, 55, who had support from Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Read the rest of Harry Litman’s piece at The Los Angeles Times

Eric Boehlert: Stop whitewashing GOP’s Putin worship

Eric Boehlert
Eric Boehlert

American politicians cheerleading a dictator as he sends tanks into a neighboring country and bombs a sovereign nation ought to be a huge news story. The fact that portions of a major U.S. political party, and its aligned media outlets, sanction Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine represents a stunning turning point for the Republican Party and how this country traditionally deals with foreign crises.

Assigning its loyalty and admiration to the Kremlin instead of the West Wing, key parts of the GOP, led by Trump who called Putin’s move “genius,” is embracing a truly radical worldview. But that’s not how the treasonous behavior is being portrayed by the press, which for days has matter-of-factly described the GOP as being “divided” over the prospect of a tyrannical Russian leader — his adversaries regularly end up dead — launching an invasion.

Read the rest of Eric Boehlert’s piece at and subscribe to PressRun Media

The Rude Pundit: The GOP Put Out “An 11-Point Plan to Save America” and It’s Hysterical Hysteria

The Rude Pundit
The Rude Pundit

Perhaps reacting to the fact that the Republican Party has given up on everything to do with actually governing, choosing, instead, to become a cabal devoted to fake outrage and outdated ideas of morality, Sen. Rick “This Fucking Skull of Doom Will Haunt Your Dreams” Scott has put out a pamphlet titled “An 11-Point Plan to Save America.” Yes, it is exactly as fucking idiotic and worthless as you already know it is. Perhaps even more so. From its preamble to its conclusions, it’s nonstop hysteria over “wokeness” and trans rights, along with policies based on complete lies and nothing about the actual issues facing the country. 

Read the rest of The Rude Pundit’s piece at his blog…

Putin orders nuclear deterrent forces on high alert; Ukraine agrees to talks with Russia

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Flag

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert, ratcheting up tensions to a new high as Ukraine agreed to talks with Russian officials in neighboring Belarus after initially rejecting the idea.

In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and agreed to meet with the Russians “without preconditions.” Zelenskyy earlier said that his government would not attend negotiations in Belarus, a close ally of Moscow’s where thousands of Russian troops massed in the lead-up to the invasion last week.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Biden introduces Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court nominee

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS Supreme Court
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson SCOTUS Supreme Court

President Joe Biden announced Friday that he will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court.

“For too long our government, our courts, haven’t looked like America,” Biden said in an event at the White House. “I believe it’s time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Ukraine’s leader defiant as Kyiv holds firm against Russian attacks

Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War
Kiev Ukraine Russia Attack War

The Ukrainian government was still in control of its capital city Kyiv Saturday after a night of explosions and fighting in the streets and a senior United States defense official said the Russian assaultcontinued to be stymied by stiffer-than-expected resistance.

Russian forces are less than 20 miles away from Kyiv but have been unable to pierce the outer ring of the city’s defenses, the official said. And some of the heaviest fighting has been reported in and around the city of Kharkiv.

The Ukrainian Air Force is still challenging the Russians in the sky despite being barraged by some 250 short-range missile strikes, the official said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

SM Happy Hour Videocast 02-25-22 Glenn Kirschner & Malcolm Nance

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StephCast F 2-25-22

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Biden announces new measures in response to Russian invasion of Ukraine

Biden Speech
Biden Speech

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced what he characterized as harsh new round of sanctions against Russia, just hours after Moscow launched an attack against Ukraine, plunging Europe into one of its gravest security crises since World War II.

Speaking from the White House, Biden criticized President Vladimir Putin for his “naked aggression against Ukraine” and vowed to make the Russian leader a “pariah on the international stage.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Explosions rock Ukraine’s capital as Russian forces advance on Kyiv

Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Snow Winter
Kiev Kyiv Ukraine Snow Winter

Ukraine’s capital was rocked by explosions Friday as a Russian advance left its residents and leaders bracing for the city to be overrun.

Invading Russian troops bore down on Kyiv despite a desperate day of Ukrainian defense in which hundreds of its troops were killed and injured.

Explosions and the wail of air-raid sirens sounded before dawn in the city of 3 million people, with residents huddled in shelters as Russia pressed forward with the invasion of its democratic neighbor.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Republicans At CPAC Would Rather Talk About The Southern Border Than Ukraine

republican elephant GOP
republican elephant GOP

As Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday, Republicans at CPAC, the annual gathering of the nation’s top conservatives, were mostly silent on the rapidly worsening situation in Eastern Europe.

Instead, they wanted to talk about the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We are in the process of getting money from the legislature so that if Biden is dropping illegal aliens into Florida from the southern border, I’m rerouting them to Delaware,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom many see as a likely GOP candidate for president in 2024.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

CDC To Significantly Ease Pandemic Mask Guidelines Friday

The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter, meaning most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday will announce a change to the metrics it uses to determine whether to recommend face coverings, shifting from looking at COVID-19 case counts to a more holistic view of risk from the coronavirus to a community. Under current guidelines, masks are recommended for people residing in communities of substantial or high transmission — roughly 95% of U.S. counties, according to the latest data.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

StephCast Th 2-24-22

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National Guard to help DC control traffic for truck convoys

truck semi big rig
truck semi big rig

The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to the nation’s capital as it prepares for trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the request Tuesday from the District of Columbia government and the U.S. Capitol Police, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday night.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Two top prosecutors investigating Trump Organization resign

Golden Gavel Court
Golden Gavel Court

Two top prosecutors involved in a criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, have resigned from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, a spokesperson for the office said Wednesday.

Carey Dunne, who championed the legal fight to get the former president’s tax returns and tax related documents all the way to the Supreme Court, twice, and won, has left the office along with Mark Pomerantz, a former mafia prosecutor who was recruited from private practice to help lead the investigation.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News