(click to enlarge)
Buses on their way to the al-Aqsa mosque are stopped on Route 1, forcing passengers to walk.
(photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / Haaretz)
Israeli police clash with protesters at the al-Aqsa mosque following days of violent clashes in the area viewed as holy by Israelis (Temple Mount) and Arabs alike.
(photo: Jamal Awad / Flash90)
Clashes between police and demonstrators at the al-Aqsa mosque compound.
(photo: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)
The perpetrator of the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline Company, causing it to temporarily suspend operations which supply 45% of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to the eastern seaboard, has yet to be identified. Federal cybersecurity authorities, the FBI and private IT security companies are performing forensic analyses of the cyber breach.
Coming on the heels of Russia's massive SolarWinds cyber attack and U.S. sanctions against Russia for that attack, one could speculate that this was a response from the Kremlin to the Biden Administration. We don't know yet, and there are other bad actors, both nations and groups that are capable of a sophisticated cyber attack on our infrastructure. It's less likely that it's teenagers playing cyber pirate with the pipeline company.
Last month, the Biden Administration announced a 100 day plan to increase cybersecurity defenses for the nation's electric grid working with the electric utility industry. In addition, they will be prioritizing $1 billion in funds appropriated as part of the economic stimulus package earlier this year for cybersecurity modernization at the Federal level. That's in addition to the $500 million requested this year for Federal cybersecurity measures. It would help if the Administration's $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal prioritized more funding to counter the inevitable cyber attacks from bad actors in the weeks, months and years ahead.
(photo: Brett Carlson for NBC News)
(click on images to enlarge)
(Matt Davies, Newsday)
(Ed Hall, Artizans.com)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)
(Darrin Bell, comicskingdom.com)
(Steve Benson, Arizona Mirror)
(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)
(Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News)
(Marc Murphy, Louisville Courier-Journal, KY)
"After months of being fed lies about the election by the conservative news media, much of the party has come to embrace them as true.
"Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who has been conducting focus groups of Trump voters for years, said that since the election she had found an increased openness to what she calls 'QAnon curious,”'a willingness to entertain conspiracy theories about stolen elections and a deep state. 'A lot of these base voters are living in a post-truth nihilism where you believe in nothing and think that everything might be untrue,' said Ms. Longwell, who opposed Mr. Trump. Contrasting the priorities of Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, she added: 'It’s an open question which strategy wins: Trying to do things that materially improve people’s lives or trying to attack things that make them feel aggrieved.'” -- Lisa Lerer in her New York Times piece, "Marooned at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Still Has Iron Grip on Republicans." (our emphasis)
As with Moscow Mitch McConnell's disgusting declaration that he was 100 percent focused on stopping the Biden agenda, the "post- truth nihilism" of the rotted out, anti- democracy Republican Party is out there for all to see -- unconcerned about solving the country's problems (that they largely created), intent on dividing us along racial and cultural lines, and willing to use any means to maintain power in a country that's growing away from them.
Recently, corrupt human/turtle hybrid Sen. Moscow Mitch McConnell (Secession-KY) and 38 other Republican Senate colleagues sent a letter to the Secretary of Education expressing horror at the thought of a realistic history of slavery and Jim Crow being taught in America's public schools. They've been on a tear about the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory, which counters the whitewashed version of American history that's been portrayed in history books for generations, ones which those Republicans learned from.
A revealing and thoroughly researched article in The Root looks at the kinds of textbooks that were used in the schools at the time these Republicans would have studied there. Not surprisingly, the history of African-Americans is rarely mentioned, and when it is, it's through the eyes of either paternalistic or outright racist authors. A small sample:
Sen. Marsha "Whiteburn" Blackburn (TN):
"In 1959, the year Sen. Marsha Blackburn would have entered kindergarten in Mississippi, the state legislature handed control of choosing textbooks to Gov. Ross Barnett. At the request of the Mississippi State Society of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), the state had already mandated a ninth-grade course in Mississippi history, which means Blackburn learned the history of her state from John K. Bettersworth’s textbook Mississippi: a History.
The New York Times wrote in 1975 that Bettersworth’s catalogs 'treat blacks of old as complacent darkies or as a problem to whites.' When The Root reviewed the text, we noticed that the entire history of the 250-year institution of slavery was reduced to five pages. Bettersworth’s book was based on UDC propaganda that taught children that the slave master treated his slaves 'as his own,' but noted that most of the human chattel were so lazy that 'it took two to help; one to do nothing.'” (our emphasis)
Sen. Ted "Cancun Ted Coup" Cruz (TX):
"If Second Baptist High School adhered to the standards of the Texas Department of Education, we can surmise that Cruz had to learn speeches from Jefferson Davis, but not that slavery caused the Civil War, which wasn’t taught in Texas schools until 2018. Texas’ social studies curriculum 'deemphasized slavery, questioned New Deal entitlements and mandated study of the 'optimism’ of ‘thankful’ immigrants,' before 2010, according to the Texas Tribune. The state also believed Harriet Tubman was too sensitive a subject for third-graders but taught that slavery was the 'third-most-influential cause of the war.'" (our emphasis)
Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham (SC):
"Although Brown v. Board of Education officially outlawed segregation in 1955, Lindsey Graham’s school district in Pickens County, S.C., didn’t desegregate until 1970. So it’s understandable why he learned history from The History of South Carolina, published from 1840 until 1970 by three generations of descendants of pro-Confederate William Simms. While Simms’ early versions opined about the 'irresponsible, uneducated, unmoral and, in many cases brutish Africans,' Graham likely used the 1958 edition where Mary C. Simms Oliphant, Simm’s granddaughter, had a much more progressive view. [ed. -- snark!]
'Most masters treated their slaves kindly,' wrote Oliphant. 'Africans were brought from a worse life to a better one. As slaves, they were trained in the ways of civilization. Above all, the landowners argued, the slaves were given the opportunity to become Christians in a Christian land, instead of remaining heathen in a savage country.'” (our emphasis)
We should note that just learning from racist history books isn't the only factor in moulding a racist. Newborns aren't racist; children have to be taught racism by their peers, and more importantly their parents or guardians. But the point is that by introducing work like the 1619 Project into curricula would go a long way to eliminating this kind of overt racism being taught to students. Otherwise, we'll be getting more Huckleberrys, Coups, and white supremacists in the halls of Congress and state legislatures in the future.
Get vaccinated! --
Average US coronavirus cases/day:
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) May 7, 2021
45,109 - Right now
49,528 - 3 days ago
50,526 - 6 days ago
53,784 - 9 days ago
59,586 - 12 days ago
62,962 - 15 days ago
67,451 - 18 days ago
71,282 - 21 days ago
"Democracy Dies In Darkness" (also in terrible, GQP narratives) --
In their reporting on FL's new voter suppression law, the Washington Post describes Trump as wanting "tougher election laws" before offering a weak, both sides analysis that echoes DeSantis' lies about "public faith"
— Courtney Hagle (@CourtneyHagle) May 7, 2021
The media cannot keep covering these laws like this pic.twitter.com/D4JlKnXMgs
William Barr, Obstructor General --
Four Ways Billy Barr Obstructed the Investigation into Rudy Giulianihttps://t.co/HR7cu3AJWl
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 7, 2021
How's the view in there, Huckleberry? --
Lindsey Graham is living in a condo deep in Trump’s ass.#KidVicious💩
— KID VICIOUS🔪 (@kirkacevedo) May 7, 2021
pic.twitter.com/2JheHkwFmG
Just in time for the scallop war! --
UK Royal Marines are testing out a new way of boarding ships using a jet suit developed by Gravity Industries 💨 pic.twitter.com/6zrq1IYbM7
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 7, 2021
TGIF! --
It’s Friday!! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/liu7qD9drD
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) May 7, 2021
ProPublica has done a well-sourced analysis of a class of new MAGA mega-donors who have emerged recently and who have showered money on Trump's campaigns. They include a couple of Scientologists, a supermarket heiress, an oil pipeline magnate, an anti-vax couple, and the head of Marvel Entertainment. One of the most odious funders of Trump is Publix grocery chain heiress Julia Fancelli. She donated funds to support the former guy's "Stop the Steal" insurrection on January 6, which surprised her nephew:
"Wesley Barnett was just as surprised as anyone to learn from news reports that the Jan. 6 Trump rally that turned into a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol was funded by Julia Jenkins Fancelli, an heiress to the fortune of the popular Publix supermarket chain. But Barnett had extra cause for being startled: Fancelli is his aunt. [snip]
In addition to pledging $300,000 to fund the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, Julia Fancelli actually had a hotel suite reserved, according to organizers who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But in the end she did not attend, according to Caroline Wren, a Trump fundraiser involved in the planning."
It's a pity she didn't attend and get a dose of bear spray, end up with the QAnon shaman in the Capitol building, and be posted on an FBI wanted list, along with her radical right-wing son Gregory. It's a bizarre set of new converts, ranging from the plain greedy, to the niche- issue wingnuts, to the delusional. Another big donor happens to be tech oddball Palmer "Un" Luckey, the brother of the (for now) fiancé of accused child sex trafficker and midnight toker Rep. Matt "Teen Spirit" Gaetz. This paragraph says all you need to know about this creep:
"Luckey has credited Trump’s book 'The Art of the Deal' with inspiring him at age 13, according to The Wall Street Journal, and he sent Trump a letter in 2011 encouraging him to run for president. During the 2016 campaign, Luckey donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a pro-Trump group associated with misogynistic and white-supremacist online posts."
Who wants to tell him that Tony Schwartz wrote that book? The entire article is fascinating, filled with details about the new set of MAGA sedition financiers. That these wealthy monsters would be taken down a few pegs by reversing the former guy's tax giveaway is a wonderful prospect.
(photo: Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)
(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Michael de Adder, Counterpoint)
(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)
(Lalo Alcaraz, LA WeeklY)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
Just released today, "Blue Heron" is the latest gorgeous composition from singer/ songwriter Sara Jarosz, from her new album "Blue Heron Suite." Rather than reading more from us, go listen and enjoy!
As distractions from their empty cupboard of plans or ideas, Republican politicians and their hacks in the right-wing media hot house have been coming up with "culture war" nonsense exemplified by the Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head stories. It's helped to distract some in our broken media from the existential threat posed by the Big Lie and those that promote it.
Last week, the story going around in right-wing circles was the President Biden's climate change policies would result in severe meat quotas, a lie that was fairly quickly debunked but still manages to reverberate among the Trumpist faithful, to wit:
"Republican politicians in recent months have increasingly used food — especially beef — as a cudgel in a culture war, accusing climate-minded Democrats of trying to change Americans’ diets and, therefore, their lives.
'That is a direct attack on our way of life here in Nebraska,' Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, said recently.
The pitched rhetoric is likely a sign of the future. As more Americans acknowledge the link between food production and climate change, food choices are likely to become increasingly political. Already, in farm states, meat eating has joined abortion, gun control and transgender rights as an issue that quickly sends partisans to their corners." (our emphasis)
While the Biden Beef Ban story was patently false, it's interesting that the Environmental Protection Agency issued a report in 2019 under the "former guy's" regime that agriculture accounted for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock "emitting" about a quarter of that amount. The problem for the food culture warriors is that the public is moving away from meat consumption, per the AP article:
"About a quarter of Americans reported eating less meat than they had a year earlier, according to a 2019 Gallup poll, chiefly for health reasons but also out of environmental concerns. About 30% of Democrats polled said they were eating less meat, compared to 12% of Republicans."
At this point, it's arguable that the greenhouse gas emitted by Republicans and their wingnut Wurlitzer over the culture wars may be equal or greater than that put out by cows and pigs, and far more noxious.
(photo: Trumpist Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Sedition - CA) holding the Republican playbook)
Republicans in disarray --
https://t.co/yLqbECSk6T pic.twitter.com/iA0cgeRUQ1
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) May 4, 2021
Republican Constitushunal skolar headed for the top --
You can see why Republicans would want someone this smart in a leadership position. https://t.co/0DgsHG218a
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 6, 2021
"the perfect Cheney replacement as she embodies embrace of The Big Lie more aggressively than almost any other elected Republican.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) May 6, 2021
"Stefanik was what today passes for a moderate Republican until she saw a ticket to power through becoming a Trump acolyte." https://t.co/xpQJOjJ45n
The party of the (white) working class, ladies & gentlemen --
Love to appeal to the working class by hanging in my private jet hangar and complaining about how there's too many poor people https://t.co/agCgnnTXmu
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 6, 2021
lol you can tell that even Hannity is embarrassed by this pic.twitter.com/YigvpnB55d
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 6, 2021
FFS, they're not your allies or colleagues, o seekers of the truth --
this is the problem right here: mainstream reporters who simply will not admit that fox news is not a news outlet, but is in fact a propaganda arm of the republican party. they are not your allies or colleagues, even if some of them are your personal friends. why cant u get it? https://t.co/AZKLmefpEU
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 6, 2021
Does someone need to explain this to him? --
The Senate was designed to give the minority input, but the Framers rejected a supermajority threshold because it gives the minority a veto. Madison wanted the minority to have a voice, Calhoun wanted a veto. Manchin is defending Calhoun's vision of the Senate, not Madison's. https://t.co/a862KUltRd
— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) May 6, 2021
Surprise! --
Surprise!! 😂 pic.twitter.com/9ohhpO4CwN
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) May 5, 2021
(click to enlarge)
Do you remember the conflict between the UK and France that was dubbed "The Great Scallop War" back in 2018? Neither do we.
However, it seems that the two NATO allies are at it again over shellfish harvesting rights around the British Crown Dependency Jersey Islands 14 miles off the French coast. Jersey officials want harvesters off their shores to employ modern equipment and to document that they're familiar with the waters from past harvesting. French fisherman are saying "Non," and each nation has sent military ships to the scene to "monitor" the situation:
"The French fisherfolk threatened to 'blockade' the harbor, and they did stop cargo ships for a few hours from entering or exiting. In one scene captured on video, a French boat also could be seen ramming another vessel.
But by Thursday afternoon, the French had retreated, after a meeting between Jersey fisheries authorities and representatives of the French fleet.
In the early hours, no one was certain how the day would go. Josh Dearing, owner of the Jersey Catch fishing company, told the Press Association: 'I looked from the shore this morning and it was just like a sea of red lights and flares already going off at sea. It was like an invasion.'”
The French Minister of the Sea reminded the Jersey fishermen that France may cut off the electricity to Jersey via an underwater cable, which seems like a disproportionate escalation, n'est-ce pas? It didn't help that there are still bruised feelings between the UK and France / European Union) over Brexit, where fishing rights were a big kahuna for both parties in negotiations.
We hope that the waters can be calmed. Neither side should bait the other while the negotiators are fishing for a solution. We're starting to flounder, so we'll leave it there.
BONUS: Here's the vid referenced above --
A French boat has been spotted ramming a British vessel in Jersey waters.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 6, 2021
More on this story 👉 https://t.co/k1YdveP8Wm pic.twitter.com/9lv7RLnBAC
(cartoon: Paul Thomas / The Daily Express)
(click on images to enlarge)
(Rob Rogers, tinyview.com)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Matt Wuerker, Politico)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(Robert Ariail, gocomics.com)
(Walt Handelsman, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
(Patrick Chappatte, The Boston Globe)
(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)
(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
Excerpt of a May 5 letter from Pamela S. Karlan, DOJ Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney, Civil Rights Division, to Arizona Republican State Senate Leader Karen Fann:
The Department has reviewed available information, including news reports and complaints regarding the procedures being used for this audit. The information of which we are aware raises concerns regarding at least two issues of potential non compliance with federal laws enforced by the Department.
The first issue relates to a number of reports suggesting that the ballots, elections systems, and election materials that are the subject of the Maricopa County audit are no longer under the ultimate control of state and local elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors at an insecure facility, and are at risk of being lost, stolen, altered, compromised or destroyed... [snip]
The second issue relates to the Cyber Ninjas’ statement of work for this audit.3 Among other things, the statement of work indicates that the contractor has been working “with a number of individuals” to “identify voter registrations that did not make sense, and then knock on doors to confirm if valid voters actually lived at the stated address.” [snip] This description of the proposed work of the audit raises concerns regarding potential intimidation of voters... [snip]
Past experience with similar investigative efforts around the country has raised concerns that they can be directed at minority voters, which potentially can implicate the anti-intimidation prohibitions of the Voting Rights Act. Such investigative efforts can have a significant intimidating effect on qualified voters that can deter them from seeking to vote in the future.
We would appreciate your response to the concerns described herein, including advising us of the steps that the Arizona Senate will take to ensure that violations of federal law do not occur.
The Trumpist election usurpers are on notice, and the Biden Department of Justice isn't playing games.
Earlier today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukraine's top leadership, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to affirm U.S. support for Ukraine in its dispute with Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and is occupying much of eastern Ukraine with its irregular forces. In a clear contrast with the twice-impeached "former guy" who tried to extort political dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden and his son from Zelenskyy in exhange for weaponry, Blinken made it clear that Ukraine's sovereignty was a top priority:
"By visiting so early in his tenure, before any trip to Russia, Blinken signaled that Ukraine is a high foreign-policy priority for President Joe Biden’s administration. His visit was highly anticipated in Ukraine, with hopes for increased military aid and strong support for NATO membership being voiced on the frontlines of the battle against Russia-backed separatists in the east and in the halls of government in Kyiv." (our emphasis)
The Biden Administration is sending a clear signal to Russian thug and autocrat Vladimir Putin that his manipulation of the former guy to the detriment of Ukraine is over. For his part, Zelenskyy pushed for expedited consideration of membership in both the European Union and NATO as a bulwark against Russian expansionism. While Russia recently withdrew a number of its forces from the border with Ukraine, a significant number remain. Some 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict with Russia since 2014.
(photo: Blinken, center, with Ukrainian Church Metropolitan Epiphanius, left, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba lay flowers at the Memorial Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in Russian-Ukrainian War in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky, Pool)
