The Contrast

 

“One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration.” -- Sen. Moscow Mitch McConnell (R-Russian Federation) yesterday in Georgetown, KY.

“I guess the contrast for people to consider is 100% of our focus is on delivering relief for the American people, and getting the pandemic under control, and putting people back to work.” -- White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at yesterday's White House press conference when asked to respond to Moscow Mitch's comment.

As with Moscow Mitch's infamous comment in 2010 that his "top priority" to make Barack Obama a one- term president, his "100% focus" on stopping the Biden administration reveals the continuing nihilism, obstructionism, and party- before- country approach that drives his rotted out, anti- democracy party.

It's also Exhibit A why Democrats must hold the Senate in 2022 and beyond by passing their agenda, screw "bipartisanship!"

 

Tweets Of The Day

 

What downside? --

 

Nearly six months since a senior GOP official told the Post, “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?” So far: insurrection, 147 in Congress opposing democracy, voter suppression, and potentially purging a GOP leader for not keeping Trump's lie going.

— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) May 5, 2021

 

Seditionist scorpions in a bottle reminisce --

 

Did you two reminisce about working together to re-take the Capitol in 2021? https://t.co/Nm87W2SZ2F

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 5, 2021

 

lol good montage of Lyin Ted and Russian Don crapping on each other. pic.twitter.com/IAfHJGWmqk

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 22, 2018

 

Grifting USA --

 

Trump's new "blog" is all about the money. It even has the recurring donation box conveniently checked for you already. pic.twitter.com/nZGNNhMTAK

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 4, 2021

 

Your periodic reminder --

You got engaged to remove the most corrupt president in history. But he was just the tip of the spear. A fascist movement is at work—in this country, in state legislatures and in Congress—to replace the republic with an authoritarian government one brick at a time. Stay engaged!

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 4, 2021

 

The natural --

 

I can’t stop laughing.. 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/kNOYZ4VmVI

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) May 4, 2021

 

 

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal)

(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

(Michael de Adder, Washington Post)

(Scott Stantis, Counterpoint)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Randall Enos, caglecartoons.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal- Constitution)

(Steve Benson, Arizona Mirror)

Mid-Week Song: Obstacle

Atlanta's indie rock band Manchester Orchestra formed in 2004, with composer / singer Andy Hull and lead guitarist / keyboardist Robert McDowell forming the band's core musically. Over the years, they've performed at music festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, and on Austin City Limits, Letterman, Kimmel and Conan. They released their new album, "The Million Masks of God" on April 30 to very positive reviews, as it starts to climb the alt rock / indie charts. Here's "Obstacle" from that album.

Tracking Down The Insurrectionists: Kentucky Fried Chickenshit (UPDATED)

 

Got another one:

The FBI arrested a man Tuesday in Louisville and charged him in connection with the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in January.

Eric Clark, of Louisville, faces charges for knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Clark, 44, was booked in the Oldham County Detention Center Tuesday. The FBI said he is expected to have his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday.

Over a dozen people with Kentucky ties have been arrested and charged with a variety of federal crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Please take time to review the many insurrectionists that tried to take down our democracy at fbi.gov, and if you see someone familiar, report them.

UPDATE:  Apparently, he was the moron sporting the Guy Fawkes mask at the insurrection (more background on this doofus at the link).

(Photo:  The mugshot/ Oldham County Detention Center)

Facebook Board Kicks Trump Can Down Road

 

In a cowardly non-decision, today the Facebook Oversight Board temporarily upheld the suspension of the "Former Guy" that was imposed following his incitement of the insurrectionist riot at the Capitol on January 6. The statement from the board says,

"Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and decide the appropriate penalty."

"Arbitrary penalty?" He should have been banned for life after his incitement of insurrection. 

The Board also took a well-deserved shot at Facebook's timid leadership for handing off the decision on reinstatement to them:

"In applying a vague, standardless penalty and then referring this case to the Board to resolve, Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities," the decision said. 

In this spineless circular firing squad, the only "winner" is the Former Guy and his cult, who will certainly be applying pressure on Facebook's hapless dweeb Mark Zuckerberg to reinstate him by the new, apparently rolling deadline. As to "a vague, standardless penalty," the penalty for inciting insurrection and continuing to promulgate the seditious Big Lie about a "stolen election" should be an inarguable case for permanent suspension, regardless of who it is.

BONUS:   A bit of perspective --

We once put sole launch authority of the most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world in the hands of a guy who can't be trusted with the same privileges your insane Facebook uncle has.

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) May 5, 2021

 

 

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

 

¡Salud!  Of course, today is Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of the victory of the Mexican army over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  If you plan to do so, please celebrate responsibly!

Just a reminder how not- at- all- racist dimbulb Donald "Dolt 45" Trump once celebrated Cinco de Mayo:

¡Qué idiota!

 

Tweets Of The Day

 

Diabolical, and well- paid --

 

Wow, right out of the antivaccine playbook, except more nuanced fine tuned. Diabolical: Fox News has recruited clever writers, with science backgrounds, to press their political agenda, discredit scientists, promote doubt and instability. The Murdoch’s pay better wages than Putin https://t.co/W5DVlwbeG5

— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) May 4, 2021

 

The Washington Post pays better than Putin, too --

 

I'm not joking - @Cat_Zakrzewski just said the "falsehood that the election was stolen" is a litmus test for the Republican Party and then asked JOSH HAWLEY - the top senator who pushed the lie - "Is that bad for the party?" pic.twitter.com/MnfSzXETOp

— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) May 4, 2021

 

They just can't bring themselves to say the right words --

 

“Tighten” voting laws. This is a fail. https://t.co/qPwzj4CqVk

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) May 4, 2021

 

Black Lives Don't Matter in Arkansas --

DNA testing from a 1993 killing in Arkansas has revealed genetic material from a male other than the inmate executed for the murder 4 years ago https://t.co/LTp4me2vKx pic.twitter.com/cdMhJF5jux

— KATV News (@KATVNews) May 1, 2021

 

Dems have work to do in segments of some minority communities --

"My father was really for unions, and I thought the Democrats defended the union," one voter said. "But then I started to research myself and found out the Democrats are supporting witchcraft and child trafficking and things like that." https://t.co/ttvxq0PJGy

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) May 3, 2021

 

Proud Boys saw wave of contributions from Chinese diaspora before Capitol attack https://t.co/vSsbwcWE7x via @usatoday

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 4, 2021

 

You had one job (cont.) --

 

OH NO!!! FORGOT THE HANDBRAKE!!!pic.twitter.com/15uCr1aEl7

— LOCKERROOM (@LockerRoomLOL) May 4, 2021

 

 

Cheney's Last Stand?

It's not often that you see a politician deliver their political suicide note in public view -- and without the background of a sex scandal, etc. -- but Wyoming Representative and paleoconservative Liz Cheney doubled down on her tweet earlier Monday that said the 2020 election was NOT stolen. She was interviewed Monday afternoon by former House Speaker, right-wing answer man, and guy in undisclosed location Paul Ryan before a group of donors and Rethuglican operatives at an American Enterprise Institute retreat, saying:

"We can't embrace the notion the election is stolen. It's a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy. We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed."

Sadly for Rep. Cheney, the Trumpist White Supremacist Party is all too willing to cross the line represented by the January 6 insurrection for their Dear Leader, including gaslighting it and continuing to put out false narratives about a "stolen election." Their dangerously delusional and violent base will certainly repeat the episode if given the opportunity, not only at the U.S. Capitol but at state capitols across the country when elections don't go their way. Sadly also for Cheney is that the "men" in her party have given their cojones to the Former Guy, who's doing pathetic stand-up routines about the election that HE LOST over six months ago. And they say they're not in favor of sex assignment procedures....

(photo: Reuters)

QOTD -- Mars Realities

 

 

"Even if some future technological breakthrough makes space travel cheaper, the fact that Mars's gravity is only one-third as strong as Earth's is probably fatal to the entire concept of colonizing the planet.  All humans, all the apes from which we are descended, all the monkeys from which those apes were descended, and so on back to the first lobefin fish that emerged from the ocean hundreds of millions of years ago -- every one of them lived every moment of its life in Earth's gravitational field.  Given what we've seen of the physical damage caused to the human body by a few months at zero gravity on the Space Station, it's hard to imagine that an entire lifetime spent at one-third Earth-normal gravity wouldn't do serious harm.  Various schemes have been proposed for modifying Mars's atmosphere and temperature, but we will never be able to change its gravity." -- Infidel 753, from his essay "One Home," on one of several reasons why humans colonizing Mars would be a nonstarter (though using robots like NASA's Perseverance works well).  A worthwhile read, bringing some reality into the discussions of colonizing other planets.

(Photo:  Mars' Dingo Gap in Gale Crater, taken by Curiosity rover, February 2014;  NASA/JPL- Caltech)

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

 (Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

 (Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Michael de Adder, Halifax Herald, Canada)

 (Mort Gerberg, @mgerberg)

(Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune)

(Jeremy Nguyen, toonstack.substack.com)

Bankruptcy Official Shoots Down NRA's Case

 

In a blow to the National Rifle Rampage Association's attempt to declare bankruptcy, a U.S. bankruptcy administrator asked Federal Judge Harlan Hale to dismiss the NRA's case. Following a series of scandals involving the NRA's corrupt leadership, the New York State Attorney General, the intrepid Letitia James, filed a lawsuit to dissolve the NRA, which was originally chartered in New York in 1871. In an attempt to escape the consequences of its corruption, the NRA declared bankruptcy and announced its move to gun-friendly Texas. The intervention of the U.S. bankruptcy administrator makes the NRA's case much more problematic:

"Linda Lambert, a lawyer with the U.S. trustee’s office — which participates in bankruptcy cases to protect taxpayer interests and enforce bankruptcy laws — told the court that the evidence presented in the hearing showed that the nonprofit organization lacked proper oversight and that personal expenses were masked as business costs.

Adam Levitin, a bankruptcy expert at the Georgetown University Law Center, said the position of the trustee — a Justice Department official who typically remains neutral in a bankruptcy proceeding — does not bode well for the NRA.

'I don’t see how the NRA pulls off a win here,' he said, adding: 'I think it’s pretty clear that the NRA loses. The real question is what the remedy will be.'”  (our emphasis)

Another factor mitigating against the NRA's case was introduced yesterday by the NRA itself: it's reorganization plan submitted to the Court would leave in place the organization's corrupt management, including the evil Wayne LaPierre, whose lavish spending on personal items was at the center of New York State's lawsuit to dissolve the organization. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

The Court is expected to render a decision within the next week.

 

Freedom Riders 60th Anniversary

 

An early milestone in the civil rights movement celebrates an anniversary:

Sixty years ago on May 4, Charles Person boarded a bus in Washington, D.C., to take the most dangerous ride of his life.

With him were 12 other Freedom Riders, spread between two buses — one group on Trailways and another on Greyhound destined for Louisiana.

Seven Black activists and six white activists. Men and women.

They rode to test a December 1960 Supreme Court ruling on Boynton v. Virginia that banned segregation in interstate travel. Complete desegregation should have meant they could use waiting rooms, dining facilities and restrooms along the way.

Other Freedom Riders — more than 400 over time — would follow, but among this original 13 was John Lewis, who later went on to become a well-respected congressman from Georgia; and James Peck, a pacifist and civil rights activist.

Lewis died in 2020 after a battle with cancer; Peck died in 1993.

Of the first 13, only two are still alive — Person and Henry “Hank” James Thomas — both of whom live in Georgia.

Their stories became a key part of the civil rights movement and illustrate the courage and determination of those who rode, many of whom were already involved in student movements and efforts to integrate other facilities.

Organized by the civil rights organization Congress for Racial Equality, the first group of Freedom Riders’ destination was New Orleans, where there would be an observance of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education. To get there, the group of activists had to travel through South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, what was often hostile territory for Black people and liberal-thinking whites.

Led by CORE’s national director, James Farmer, they had been trained in passive resistance — not to respond to the angry taunts they were likely to encounter and even the physical violence, such as spitting, pushing or strikes with fists, bats, wooden boards or metal objects.

Person's and Thomas' experiences on the first ride are covered in the linked article.  Reading their stories,  the enormous courage of the Freedom Riders, especially the first contingent that left Washington, DC, 60 years ago today, can't be overstated.  They were riding into an unknown, but likely extremely hostile environment, traveling through the deep South to New Orleans, seeking service at segregated facilities along the way, expecting that they would be greeted with the treatment noted above.  Had this generation of Americans not put the cause of equal rights ahead of their personal safety, it's hard to say with certainty whether the civil rights movement would have succeeded in ending Jim Crow over the next decade.  It makes what's going on with white nationalist Republican efforts to reinstate Jim Crow- era restrictions on voting all the more infuriating and intolerable.  May those of us alive today have just a pinch of the courage and resolve of those Freedom Riders to ensure what they did was not in vain.

(Photo:  Charles Person, right/ Johnson Publishing)

COVID-19 Aid Flows To A Desperate India

 

The photo above shows the inside of a cargo plane in Doha, Qatar being loaded with tons of medical supplies bound for India.

India reported 368,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours (a number which is almost certainly low), and a death count of 219.000, still less than half of the deaths in the U.S. but climbing faster.

Nations and private organizations are rushing medical supplies including oxygen concentrators, vaccines, ventilators, and PPE to India in hopes to save as many lives as possible as India suffers it's worst week since the beginning of the pandemic.

As we experienced here, India's failed political leadership avoided hard decisions that could have stemmed the spread. Prime Minister Modi, who was trying to run a political campaign in the midst of a pandemic, took his cues from the "former guy" here apparently and just lost a key election in the populous state of West Bengal. Modi has been disregarding public health officials and holding massive rallies with no social distancing and sporadic mask wearing (sound familiar?), and has encouraged mass Hindu religious celebrations that surely stimulated outbreaks of the virus.

(photo: Karim Jaafar / AFP / Getty Images)

Ballot Backfire?

 

 

The nationwide knee- jerk (emphasis on jerk) reaction of the GQP cult to the defeat of cult leader Donald "Big Lie" Trump has manifested in voter suppression bills and ludicrous efforts to de-legitimatize Joe Biden's victory.  

Amy Gardner has a good look at how one particular voter suppression measure -- restrictions on absentee voting -- may well have unintended consequences for the GQP.  She takes Florida as her example:

Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation — and there have been many, including two of the state’s current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott — owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting.

Now, some Florida Republicans are reacting with alarm after the GOP-dominated state legislature, with DeSantis’s support, passed a far-reaching bill Thursday night that puts new restrictions on the use of mail ballots.

Not only are GOP lawmakers reversing statutes that their own predecessors put in place, but they are also curtailing a practice that millions of state Republicans use, despite former president Donald Trump’s relentless and baseless claims that it invites fraud.

Even as Democrats and voting rights advocates accuse the proponents of Senate Bill 90 of attempting to suppress the votes of people of color, these Republicans say their own political fortunes are in peril, too.

The potential fallout in the key swing state illustrates how the Republican Party is hurting itself in its rush to echo Trump’s false allegations, they said.

“Donald Trump attempted to ruin a perfectly safe and trusted method of voting,” said one longtime Republican consultant in the state who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment.

The craven cultists, responding to self- serving Trump's Big Lie, have essentially made a form of voting largely utilized by their own cultists, but recently utilized by Democrats due to Trump's rhetoric and concerns about the pandemic, much more difficult:

Because more Democrats voted by mail in 2020, Republicans may assume that curtailing mail voting will have a larger effect on the other party, several voting rights activists said.

Kirk Bailey, political director for the ACLU of Florida, said he thinks that’s a mistake.

“This bill is so restrictive for all voters that it’s going to impact all the parties in ways that I’m not sure anybody really knows,” he said.

Schale cautioned that the shift of Democratic and Republican voting habits in 2020 is by no means assured to continue. Two huge factors were at work — Trump’s rhetoric, plus fears of the coronavirus — that will wane in time, he said.

“Any time either party tries to make a change in the way we think about elections because of one election cycle, it’s kind of fraught with danger,” he said. “I do not believe we know enough about voting behavior to know that Democrats are going to vote by mail forever going forward. In the same way, Republicans have voted by mail for 20 years, and we don’t know they’re going to stop just because Donald Trump doesn’t like it.”

We'll have to see if courts let these restrictions stand, and/or if Democrats can pass voter protections through the current Congress that limit or mitigate the damage that's being done to our democracy. Though, in the meantime, it would be richly deserved, and much to be desired, if these anti- democracy dimbulbs inadvertently immolated themselves at the altar of their dimbulb cult leader.