Texas GOP enshrines hate in heinous new platform

 

It's Our Democracy!

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Celebrate Juneteenth, the right way

Today's Top Stories:

Texas Republicans declare Biden election illegitimate, call homosexuality an "abnormal lifestyle choice"
Texas Republicans formally rejected President Biden's 2020 election as illegitimate and adopted an official party platform declaring homosexuality an "abnormal lifestyle choice."

Take Action: Tell the Senate to pass the Equality Act for Pride Month!

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House 1/6 committee member Adam Kinzinger and his family receive execution threats
GOP Rep. Kinzinger received a mailed letter threatening to "execute" him, his wife, and their 5-month-old child for his role in uncovering the truth about Trump's insurrection.

Take Action: Expel the congressmen who tried to get Trump pardons for their role in Jan. 6th!

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Don't miss out on DAY 4 of the January 6 Committee hearing TOMORROW
Brian Tyler Cohen: Tune into Brian Tyler Cohen's livestream starting at 12pm ET/9am PT. Click on the image below and hit "NOTIFY ME" to be reminded when the free stream begins.

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Massive, widespread heat wave compounds energy cost challenges for millions
Sweltering heat and humidity have hit large parts of the US where many low-income families are also facing "catastrophic" high energy costs.

Take Action: Tell Congress to pass paid family leave and affordable child care!

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Juneteenth is a federal holiday, but in most states it's still not a day off
One year after President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday, 26 states have not authorized the funding that would allow for state employees to take the day off.

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World swimming bans transgender athletes from women’s events
FINA members voted 71.5% for a new "gender inclusion policy" that permits only swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events and announced proposals for a new "open competition" category for transgender athletes.

Take Action: Tell Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment NOW!

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House 1/6 probe setting its sights on Pence, Ginni Thomas
Trump's former vice president and Justice Clarence Thomas' wife have some serious explaining to do.

Take Action: Tell Congress to pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act!

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Dreamers and immigrants are facing a barrage of threats from Trump's rigged courts
OD Action Partner: The National Immigration Law Center is leading the fight to protect Dreamers and immigrants from hateful attacks and threats to their livelihoods. If you're able, please chip in to support their crucial work!

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Fox News to pay $15 million settlement to ex-host who called out gender pay gap
Melissa Francis was taken off the air after calling out Fox News' gender pay disparity, prompting a state investigation into the "news" network's discriminatory pay practices.

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Former aide says Trump privately acknowledged he lost 2020 election
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House aide, heard the disgraced ex-president privately admit that he lost the election, at one point blurting out, "Can you believe I lost to this guy?" while watching TV.

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Republican Roger Marshall, the Senate’s only OB-GYN, caught pushing dangerous misinformation about the abortion pill
Sen. Roger Marshall is "hiding behind his doctor’s degree" to try to scare women about medication abortion, fellow Sen. Tina Smith, a former Planned Parenthood executive, said.

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Only in America

Teen killed, cop and two others injured in DC concert shooting

4 buildings at national observatory in Arizona lost in wildfire

New York's new body armor ban doesn't cover gear worn by Buffalo murderer

Philippine gov't official shot, killed in Uber ride to Philly airport

What in the world?

More than 200 mostly ethnic Amhara killed in attack in Ethiopia

Islamic State: Attack on Sikh temple is revenge for Prophet insults

Far-right sends shockwaves in France after electoral breakthrough

South Asia floods hampering access to food, clean water

Colombia picks 1st leftist president in tight runoff contest

Hope...

US opens COVID vaccine to little kids; shots begin this week

Russian journalist sells Nobel Prize for Ukrainian children

US House allocates $1.3 billion dollars to conservation

US climate action could save millions of lives

6 in 10 US adults support prosecuting Trump for insurrection

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Today’s Action: Get out the vote in the primaries!

There are four primaries taking place TOMORROW — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Virginia. We all know the biggest enemies of progress in America are Republicans, but it’s also been painfully clear that just a few bad Democrats can muck a LOT of things up for all of us. This is our chance to do something about it — to not just elect any Democrats, but to reshape the party with real progressives to advance our legislative priorities!

If you live in one of the four states voting TOMORROW and don’t yet have a plan to vote, make yours now. If you have friends in those states, call them and cajole them to the polls! Find out when your own state’s primaries will be held, and identify your current polling place here. It is absolutely critical to show up this year — and every year — to build a truly progressive future.

Every. Vote. Matters. Check your voter registration status and polling place to ensure you’re prepared for upcoming primaries and the midterms — and tell your network of like-minded friends and family to do the same on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, at the park, in the bleachers, in the pews, at the dinner table, and anywhere else you can!

No matter how unpopular Trump and the GOP seem to be, Americans are still dealing with extreme income inequality, incessant voter suppression schemes, relentless attacks on reproductive care, and the demonization of marginalized communities, because corrupt Republicans are regularly joined by a few bad-faith Democrats. Fortunately, we have some amazing progressives running for office this year. But they can’t win if we don’t show up.

If you have free time today, sign up for a virtual letter-writing shift with DoTheMostGood to motivate infrequent voters to participate in November’s election!

Every meaningful electoral victory shares a common thread: progressives turning out in full force on Election Day.

Check your voter registration status at odaction.com/vote and make sure you’re ready to do your part in upcoming primaries and the midterms to win Congress and more. Then, share away on social media!

PS — Please don't forget to sign the petition telling Congress to protect election workers, and be sure to follow OD Action on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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RSN: FOCUS: Bess Levin | Surprise: Mitch Mcconnell Vows to Never Let Democrats Add a Justice to the Supreme Court Again

 

 

18 June 21

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18 June 21

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FOCUS: Bess Levin | Surprise: Mitch McConnell Vows to Never Let Democrats Add a Justice to the Supreme Court Again

Bess Levin, Vanity Fair
Levin writes: "At least the world's most shameless hack is honest?" 

hy do people run for office? For some, it’s to make a better world for their children. For others, it’s a passion for government. For Mitch McConnell, it’s to fuck over Democrats at every possible opportunity, his neck pouch quivering with joy as he shreds small “d” democracy over and over and over again.

Obviously, one of McConnell’s favorite ways to screw not just his colleagues on the other side of the aisle but the millions of Americans who voted for them is by denying the other party the ability to add justices to the Supreme Court, based on made-up logic he literally pulls out of his ass as it suits him. In 2016, of course, he spent nearly an entire year blocking Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, claiming that presidents aren’t allowed to put someone on the court in an election year and that he had to delay the confirmation so the voters could decide. (They did, and it was in 2012 when they decided they wanted Obama to be president again.)

Fast-forward four years later, though, and with just weeks to go until the 2020 election, McConnell didn’t just ram through Amy Coney Barrett‘s confirmation, he announced he would do so basically before Ruth Bader Ginsburg‘s body was cold. The night RBG died, McConnell, the most shameless man to ever live, released a statement saying that he would move quickly to confirm Trump’s nominee, rewriting the completely arbitrary rule he invented to block Obama’s replacement for Antonin Scalia. And to lay the hackery on extra thick, he cast his absurd reversal as a fulfillment of a promise to the American people. “In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016,” McConnell said, “Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s term. We kept our promise. Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year. By contrast, Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary. Once again, we will keep our promise.” Then he went on to clear the way for a woman who thinks there are some instances when abortion should be punishable by death to be confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land with the election less than 2 months away.

At this point, you could reasonably assume that with Joe Biden in power, McConnell would once again revert to his position that presidents can’t seat someone on the court within an election year. And of course, he has. But he’s also amended the policy to basically state that he’ll never let a Democratic president get a justice on the Supreme Court again so long as he’s in power, even if said president has nearly two years left on his term.

McConnell wasn’t asked about confirming a Democratic nominee in 2021 or 2022 because he is not actually the majority leader at the moment, but it’s pretty clear if he was he’d come up with—and implement—some kind of rule saying that only Republicans can add justices to court. Which is obviously insane and corrupt and shameless but hey, that’s Mitch, the guy who said last month that he is “100%” focused on blocking Biden‘s agenda, up to and including all the parts that might actually help Americans. Which would explain why many people are openly begging for Justice Stephen Breyer, 81, to retire. Asked about the situation on Sunday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN, “You know, it’s something I think about, but I would probably lean towards yes.… I would give more thought to it, but I’m inclined to say yes.” She did not add, “Because Biden needs to get a liberal on the court before that old crone from Kentucky can snatch the seat out of Democrats’ fingers,” but presumably she was thinking it.

P.S. Trump’s Justice Department spied on White House employees too

It wasn’t just his congressional nemeses and enemies in the press. Per The New York Times:

The Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for information in February 2018 about an account that belonged to Donald F. McGahn II, President Donald J. Trump’s White House counsel at the time, and barred the company from telling him about it, according to two people briefed on the matter. Apple told Mr. McGahn about the subpoena last month, said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. Mr. McGahn’s wife also received a similar notice from Apple, the person said.

It is not clear what FBI agents were investigating, whether Mr. McGahn was their specific focus, or whether he was swept up in a larger net because he had communicated with someone who was under scrutiny. As the top lawyer for the 2016 Trump campaign and then the White House counsel, Mr. McGahn was in contact with numerous people who may have drawn attention either as part of the Russia investigation or a later leak inquiry. Still, the disclosure that agents had collected data of a sitting White House counsel, which they kept secret for years, is extraordinary.

While we don’t know exactly what the DOJ was looking for, as the Times notes, we do know things were tense between Trump and McGahn around the time the department went after the White House counsel’s records. A month prior, per the Times, Trump had “tried to persuade Mr. McGahn to make a statement falsely denying” that he’d been asked to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, as press reports had indicated. Trump is said to have told aides that McGahn was a “liar” and a “leaker,” according to former Trump administration officials. And it seems he decided to use the power of the DOJ to go after him!

Area senator temporarily blocked from spreading bullshit medical advice

Ron Johnson knows what we’re talking about:

YouTube suspended GOP senator Ron Johnson’s account on Friday after he posted comments regarding dubious treatments for COVID-19. “We removed the video in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don’t allow content that encourages people to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.... For months Johnson—who tested positive for coronavirus last fall—has spread anti-vaccine misinformation and downplayed the urgency of vaccinating all Americans against COVID-19, putting the controversial Wisconsin Republican at odds with public health guidance aimed at easing the ongoing pandemic. The two-term senator, who’s facing reelection next year, has also downplayed the seriousness of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

YouTube doesn’t allow medical misinformation about COVID-19, including anything that recommends use of ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, according to the company. In July of 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19. The agency now says hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19.

Hydroxychloroquine, of course, was one of Dr. Donald Trump’s big recommendations to the public, second only to his suggestion that they shoot up household cleaner, leading the manufacturer of Lysol to issue a statement saying that “under no circumstance” should disinfectant be injected into one’s body.

In an extremely huffy statement, Johnson told CNN that YouTube has “decided there is only one medical viewpoint allowed and it is the viewpoint dictated by government agencies. YouTube’s ongoing COVID censorship proves they have accumulated too much unaccountable power. Big Tech and mainstream media believe they are smarter than medical doctors who have devoted their lives to science and use their skills to save lives.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene is sorry about that stuff she said about Jews

Just kidding, she’s sorry she’s getting backlash over it, and is hoping this stunt field trip to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum helps:

Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene paid a visit to the Holocaust museum on Monday in a bid to defuse the controversy over her comments comparing vaccine and mask requirements to Nazi Germany.... Greene’s museum visit comes as one Jewish House Democrat, Illinois rep. Brad Schneider, prepares to introduce a censure resolution condemning Greene’s latest comments on the Holocaust. Some Democrats are already privately discussing censure as a potential response to a group of Republican lawmakers pushing a censure resolution against one of their caucus members, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), for her recent remarks on Israel.

Last month Greene claimed that “any rational Jewish person” thinks mask mandates are as bad as the Holocaust. She’s also previously blamed California wildfires on Jewish space lasers.

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Ron Johnson suspended from YouTube for sharing videos promoting Hydroxychloroquine: report

Sky Palma

June 11, 2021

 

YouTube has suspended Sen. Ron Johnson for seven days over two videos he uploaded of hearings from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on early experimental treatments of COVID-19, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, Fox News reports.

"YouTube's ongoing COVID censorship proves they have accumulated too much unaccountable power," Johnson told Fox News.

"Big Tech and mainstream media believe they are smarter than medical doctors who have devoted their lives to science and use their skills to save lives," he said. "They have decided there is only one medical viewpoint allowed, and it is the viewpoint dictated by government agencies. How many lives will be lost as a result? How many lives could have been saved with a free exchange of medical ideas?"

"Government-sanctioned censorship of ideas and speech should concern us all," Johnson added.

Speaking to Fox News, a YouTube spokesperson said video removals from Johnson's account and his subsequent suspension was due to violations of YouTube's "medical misinformation policies."

"We removed the video in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don't allow content that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus," the spokesperson said.

A YouTube blog post further adds that the platform will remove content promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin unless there is enough countervailing context.

The news comes as conservatives tout a new study that shows Hydroxychloroquine increased the survival rate of severely ill coronavirus patients. The observational study, published by medRxiv, found that Hydroxychloroquine, along with zinc, could increase the COVID survival rate by as much as nearly 200% if given at higher doses to patients on ventilators with severe illness.

Some conservatives say the study vindicates Trump.

"How many people died bc Dr. Fauci said trust the science and Hydroxychloroquine isn't effective?" Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted. "New study shows: Hydroxychloroquine + Azithromycin therapy at a higher dose improved survival by nearly 200% in ventilated COVID patients. Trump was right."

The medRxiv study, however, includes a disclaimer which reads: "This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice."

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