U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

GOP strategist says Tennessee Republicans know they overreached on expulsions



Just days after Tennessee Republicans triggered a nationwide controversy by expelling two Black representatives — Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis — for joining a peaceful protest inside the state Capitol advocating for new gun laws, the pair were appointed to their seats amid outrage.

Ultimately, argued GOP strategist Alice Stewart on CNN's "OutFront" Wednesday, Tennessee Republicans overreached — and they know it.

"You said you were glad they've both been reinstated," said anchor Erica Hill. "Did Republicans mess this up, Alice?"

"They did," said Stewart. "Look, you know, I've worked in the state legislature in neighboring Arkansas, quite familiar with the political dynamics at play in Tennessee. And look, Republicans clearly were frustrated with the actions and the distraction of the Tennessee Three. But they made a mistake in expelling them. They overreacted, and I'm glad to see them back in their positions."

Stewart added that in her conversations with "several" Republican lawmakers, "they acknowledged that they're saddened by this turn of events. They realized that there are other actions they could have taken, whether it's centering them or removing them from their committees."

"At this stage of the game, they're ready to get back to the people's business of the State of Tennessee, and they want to work on passing the budget and working together on the core issue at hand here, which is addressing gun violence and having all sides of the table, but at the end of the day, this Tennessee Three, they violated decorum and protocol and there should be consequences, but at the end of the day, the right step was taken. They're back in the legislature and ready to work together for the people of Tennessee.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Watch: Missouri Republican defends letting parents marry off 12-year-old kids



Missouri State Sen. Mike Moon (R) this week defended the rights of parents to marry off children as young as 12 years old.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that Moon made the remarks during a contentious debate over banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors in which Democratic State Rep. Peter Meredith accused him of hypocrisy for supporting the bill despite positioning himself as a champion of parents' rights.

"I've heard you talk about parents' rights to raise their kids how they want," argued Meredith. "In fact, I just double-checked, you voted no on making it illegal for kids to be married to adults at the age of 12 if their parents consented to it!"

Meredith went on to accuse Moon of making it legal for a 12-year-old to be "raped by an adult" as long as their parents agreed to let it occur, which prompted an angry response from Moon.

"Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12?" he asked Meredith. "I do. And guess what? They're still married."

As the News-Leader notes, "Moon's support of child marriage in some instances has been long documented," as in the past he has discussed "a couple he met in college who had married one another at age 12."

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1646180258582872064



Sen. Dianne Feinstein steps down from judiciary panel amid calls for resignation



Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.), under growing pressure to resign amid an extended absence due to illness, has asked to be taken off the Judiciary Committee indefinitely while she recovers from shingles, The New York Times reports.

The 89-year-old senior senator from California has been absent from the Senate since contracting shingles in late February. She has since been released from the hospital, but her prolonged absence has resulted in her missing 58 votes as of Monday, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

“I understand that my absence could delay the important work of the Judiciary Committee,” Feinstein said in a statement.

Her decision to step down follows calls from House Democrats Ro Khanna (D-Ca.) and Dean Phillips (D-Min.) that she resign.

“Per Sen. Feinstein’s wishes, Majority Leader Schumer will ask the Senate next week to allow another Democratic Senator to temporarily serve on the Judiciary Committee,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Read More Here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/us/politics/feinstein-senate-judiciary-committee.html



Ethics watchdog urges Justice Department investigation into Clarence Thomas' trips



A Washington ethics watchdog is calling for the Department of Justice to investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for failing to disclose luxury trips he received from a billionaire GOP megadonor.

“This high-profile ethics matter has historic implications far beyond one Supreme Court justice,” attorneys for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center wrote in a detailed letter on Tuesday to the Judicial Conference, the principal policymaking body for federal courts. The Judicial Conference could trigger an investigation by referring the case to the Justice Department.

The financial disclosure law that covers justices and other federal officials states that “knowingly and willfully” failing to make required disclosures can result in fines. If someone intentionally falsifies their disclosure reports, they can face criminal penalties — a warning printed below the signature line of the reports themselves. But such prosecutions are rare.

ProPublica’s investigation last week revealed that Thomas has taken international cruises on conservative donor Harlan Crow’s superyacht, flown on Crow’s private jet and regularly vacationed at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

If the Judicial Conference were to refer the case to the Justice Department, it could lead to a remarkable historical moment. One of the few instances of a federal investigation into a sitting Supreme Court justice occurred in 1969, when Justice Department officials signaled an inquiry into outside payments that Justice Abe Fortas had been accepting. Fortas eventually resigned.

Lawyers for the Campaign Legal Center, which was founded by a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission and pushes for tighter ethics enforcement in Washington, wrote that there’s ample “reasonable cause to believe that” Thomas knew the trips had to be disclosed.

“If the Judicial Conference fails to publicly address the substantial evidence of blatant violations of a disclosure law that other federal judges understand and regularly follow,” the attorneys wrote, “it creates an exception for Justice Thomas that swallows the rule.”

The Judicial Conference and Thomas did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

The letter is the latest in what have been days of mounting pressure to address the revelations. Last week, Democratic lawmakers called on Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate. This Monday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans to hold a hearing “regarding the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.” They also announced an effort to reform ethics rules for federal judges.

In response to our story last week, Thomas issued a statement acknowledging the “family trips,” which he said he was told that he didn’t need to report.

“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas wrote. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”

Seven experts consulted by ProPublica, including former ethics lawyers for Congress and the White House, said the law clearly requires the disclosure of gifts of transportation, such as private jet flights. If Thomas is arguing otherwise, the experts said, he is incorrect. Among the experts was a top official at the Campaign Legal Center.

Crow acknowledged that he’d extended “hospitality” to the Thomases “over the years.” He said that Thomas never asked for any of it and it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”

Attorneys with the center said that the federal Ethics in Government Act and judiciary regulations have always required the disclosure of free travel — even before the regulations were updated last month. They argued that Thomas himself implicitly acknowledged as much when he disclosed similar flights in the late 1990s, including one on Crow’s jet.

The attorneys pushed for the Judicial Conference to make good on its recent promises to “ensure timely action is taken on credible allegations of misconduct” and refer Thomas’ case to the Justice Department before the next judicial ethics disclosure deadline in May.

Read More Here: https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow

[Rick Plant]

GOP 'clown car' has been reduced to 'celebrating convicts': Morning Joe



MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Wednesday roasted Republicans in the House of Representatives who have been historically unproductive in passing any kind of legislative agenda.

In contrast to the 1990s majority led by Newt Gingrich -- which passed tax cuts, welfare reform, and other key priorities in its first 100 days -- the Republican Party under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has so far passed nothing of substance.

"Think about this: They ran saying the Democrats were only focused on marginal issues, that they needed to care about inflation, they needed to care about immigration, they needed to care about crime," he said. "And yet, you look at the clown show that you put on, they're going and they're celebrating convicts, holding field hearings in prison, to praise convicts, who stormed the United States Capitol!"

Scarborough said he was particularly shocked that the GOP still hadn't passed any kind of immigration legislation given that gaining control of the United States-Mexico border is the top animating issue among Republican base voters.

"They can't even get an immigration bill on the House floor that can pass!" he marveled. "Because republicans don't even agree with each other on that!"

Meanwhile, Scarborough said, the GOP's only major investigative hearings haven't exposed any bombshells about the "weaponization" of the federal government and have only revolved around Republican lawmakers complaining about their anti-vaccine posts getting banned from Twitter.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'Just Like Public Pools Were Closed in the South’: Shock as State and Local Governments try to shutter public libraries



In at least two states across America governments are trying to shutter public libraries in response to legal action attempting to overturn bans on books conservatives oppose, while one Republican U.S. Congressman is calling public libraries "liberal grooming centers."

One Texas county is considering shutting down all its libraries in response to a judge ordering books some locals oppose to be returned to its shelves, as NCRM was among the first to report. A federal judge ordered Llano County to return books with LGBTQ and race-related content to library shelves, after seven local residents who wanted the books available to the public filed a First and Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit, saying removal of the books violated their civil rights.

In response to the judge ordering books be returned to shelves, Llano County officials will meet on Thursday to consider not only shutting down all its libraries, but terminating the employment of everyone who works in those libraries.

In an even more vindictive move, one Republican House lawmaker in Missouri was so enraged over a lawsuit from the ACLU, filed on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, that he pushed through legislation that defunds all public libraries across the state.

That bill passed on Tuesday, stripping more than $4.5 million budgeted for public libraries from the state's budget should it be signed into law.

The ACLU is attempting to have a court "declare Senate Bill 775 unconstitutional, a bill that has resulted in over 300 books getting banned from school libraries, many of which include LGBTQ characters or racial justice themes," as Heartland Signal reports.

Missouri House budget committee chairman Rep. Cody Smith "argued that the state should not 'subsidize' the lawsuit with government aid. But the Missouri Library Association, a nonprofit representing Missouri’s librarians, put out a statement stating they are not providing any funding for this lawsuit, as the ACLU is aiding them pro bono."

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1646104872410836992

Adding another wrinkle to the issue, a Tuesday MSNBC opinion piece notes: "The problem, though, is that Missouri Republicans aren’t the only ones mounting up against libraries. Late last month, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., tweeted: 'Over time, American communities will build beautiful, church owned public-access libraries. I’m going to help these churches get funding. We will change the whole public library paradigm. The libraries regular Americans recall are gone. They’ve become liberal grooming centers.'"

Pointing to an NBC News report on Llano County considering to shutter its libraries, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law at The University of Alabama School of Law tweeted, "Just like public pools were closed in the south after desegregation was ordered."

Morgan Fairchild, the well-known actress and activist, weighed in saying, "I never want to hear another word from a Republican about Freedom, when they defund public libraries, a concept started in US by Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, so that common citizens could better themselves."

Journalist Roland Martin, a Texas native and author of four books including "White Fear: How the Browning of America Is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds," served up an even more passionate response.

"I keep telling y'all the @GOP is simply STUPID. How in the hell do you defund all of the public libraries in a state? These are truly illiterate a****les," he tweeted.

Award winning novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, literary critic, professor, and editor Joyce Carol Oates declared defunding libraries and diversity initiatives, childcare, and pre-kindergarten programs, "sad but not surprising."

"Republicans seem bent upon destroying the commonweal like public libraries," she said on Twitter, adding: "their goal appears to be privatizing everything as in a feudal society in which serfs are subhuman, mere labor."

Former Missouri Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill offered a multiple choice tweet:

"A primer on Mo GOP:

A) outlawed all abortions from moment of conception for rape victims

B) voted to allow children to openly carry AR-15s

C) defunded public libraries

D) All of the above. Ding ding ding (right answer)"

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/04/just-like-public-pools-were-closed-in-the-south-shock-as-state-and-local-governments-try-to-shutter-public-libraries/



'Nothing else to brag about': Boebert accused of wasting taxpayers' money with 'showboating'



Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert is wasting taxpayers’ money by “showboating” about the number of committee hearings the House GOP is holding, according to experts who spoke to Newsweek.

The member of Congress has boasted that her party has “set a new record for the amount of hearings in a single day,” and claimed no group has “worked harder to get this country back on track,” the news site reported.

But experts said the focus on the number of meetings is merely a cover for not having achieved anything of real worth.

"It's no surprise that they are focusing on their committee investigations and hearings because they have very little to show in terms of legislative accomplishments,” David A. Bateman, a politics expert at Cornell University, told Newsweek.

"This is a period of divided government and high polarization. Still, House Republicans are having a hard time agreeing on and passing their own legislative priorities, let alone getting these passed through the Senate or signed into law by the president.

"When you've got a poor record in getting bills enacted into law, and a poor performance in passing legislation through the chamber you control, you're going to emphasize the activities of committees, because what else is there to focus on? Hearings can be important, but they can also be opportunities for member showboating," Bateman continued.

"And the reason the House GOP wants to brag about their hearings is because they have almost nothing else to brag about."

Among the committee hearings Boebert references are investigations into the Biden administration and his family's business dealings, Jim Jordan’s look at the federal government’s supposed weaponization against conservatives, and a look at the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Several Republicans are reportedly frustrated at the lack of progress they’ve made.

Newsweek reported that millions of dollars of taxpayers' money are spent on the committees – between January 2021 and January 2023, $301.2 million dollars went to them, it said.

Thomas Gift, the head of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek: "The main point to say is that the number of hearings isn't an indicator of effectiveness, and it's a mistake to conflate the two.

"Ultimately, what we should care about is the quality of legislative outputs, not inputs – the results of which are judged by voters. Lots of hearings geared toward the wrong issues can be, at best, distracting, and, at worst, counterproductive."

https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-2659845484/



They’re gaslighting us’: Kansas lawmakers stray from facts when talking about public schools

Masterson falsely says school funding wasn’t cut during Brownback years; Williams blames mass shootings on racist trope



TOPEKA — Senate President Ty Masterson and Rep. Kristey Williams delivered a series of inaccurate statements on gun violence, public school cuts and special education funding during an hourlong public forum SaPersonay in Augusta.

The forum took place a day after the Senate rejected legislation crafted by Williams to create a private school voucher program. Lawmakers adjourned for spring break in the early morning hours of April 7.

Williams, an Augusta Republican, and Masterson, an Andover Republican, complained about public school performance and made their case for using taxpayer funds to incentivize attendance at unregulated private schools.

In an interview, Liz Meitl, a public school teacher in Kansas City, Kansas, said Masterson and Williams were misrepresenting K-12 pubic education information.

“What they’re doing is creating circumstances in which the Kansas public can’t have conversations about real change or real improvement,” Meitl said. “They’re gaslighting us as a whole state.”

School funding cuts

Masterson falsely claimed there was no funding cut to public schools under former Gov. Sam Brownback, even though the state repeatedly slashed public school funding between 2008 and 2016, years when Masterson was in the Legislature.

“That’s the biggest lie out there in the ether, is that there was this big cut in schools,” Masterson said. “The only governor that actually hard cut schools — which was less-money-in-subsequent-years, I-got-less-than-I-did-before cut definition — the only governor that cut schools was Mark Parkinson.”

Parkinson, a Democrat, executed several rounds of school budget cuts in response to the 2008 recession, leading schools to file a lawsuit in 2010, the year Brownback was elected. The Legislature again lowered the amount of money the state provides public schools after Brownback took office in 2011.

As the state lost a series of legal challenges for underfunding schools, the Legislature replaced a formula that dated to 1992 with a two-year block grant to school districts. The Kansas Supreme Court determined the grants, which lowered K-12 school funding and eliminated extra aid for students in poverty, were unconstitutional.

Legislators and lobbyists who propose spending less on public schools sometimes conflate the distinction between state aid, which pays for teacher salaries and classroom expenses, with local bond projects and federal aid for food and transportation.

“K-12 never got less money. And that’s just math,” Masterson said.

Senate and House lawmakers reached a deal last week to cut $76.3 million in base state aid from public school funding, but neither chamber voted on the proposal before adjourning.

The funding bill was criticized because of the cuts, and also because it was a massive piece of legislation that blended state funding for K-12 education with provisions from nine other bills, including a form of parental rights legislation and an extension of the statewide mill levy that generates revenue for public schools.

Special education funding

Williams told the crowd that special education was overfunded in some districts, even though the state has underfunded special education for years.

The Kansas Association of School Boards estimates the state is about $160 million short of the special education funding required by state law.

During this year’s session, Williams attempted to combine funding to close part of the gap on special education with an unpopular private school voucher program. The proposal narrowly passed the House and was defeated in the Senate before lawmakers adjourned last week.

“There’s 149 school districts out of 286 that are exceeding the excess cost,” Williams said. “Some are up to 300% and some are 60%. And we’ve got to equalize that.”

Meitl said Williams was misrepresenting the situation because costs are determined by an individual’s needs. Some districts, Meitl said, have higher numbers of students with specific needs, and the special education costs reflect varying needs across districts.

“That’s like budget jargon,” Meitl said. “If humans were numbers, then sure, we could do that. But we’re not. Humans are variable. And needs are different and needs present out of nowhere."

Under Kansas law, the state is supposed to provide 92% of the extra costs of special education, but the Legislature hasn’t met this requirement since 2011.

While the federal government is supposed to provide up to 40% of special education funding as stipulated by legislation Congress passed in 1990, only about 13% has been provided. Districts have had to divert funds from general education programs to pay for special education costs.

Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposed budget would add $72.4 million for special education every year for the next five years to meet the statutory requirement.

“We must put Kansas on track to fully fund special education because every child deserves the chance to learn and thrive,” Kelly said in a Monday news release.

Vouchers

With the COVID-19 pandemic, years of underfunding, and struggles with providing special education care, public school officials say they need time, support and funding to return better results.

Williams said funding voucher programs would help more students in Kansas. She referenced a form of a voucher plan that failed to pass the Legislature. The program would’ve provided students attending nonpublic schools with the equivalent of 95% of base state aid, which is about $5,000.

Any nonpublic preschool, elementary or high school that teaches reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science would be eligible to benefit financially from the proposed law, including schools that are unaccredited. The schools wouldn’t be subject to governmental oversight. Religious objects, such as Bibles, could be bought with state dollars.

“It provides all students with the opportunity for enrichment, whether they choose a private or a public school,” Williams said. “We’re waiting for action on the Senate side on that.”

The House approved the bill on a 65-58 vote, but it failed 17-20 in the Senate.

Critics of the proposal say public dollars shouldn’t be used on private schools, more than half of Kansas counties don’t have private schools, the majority of the money would go to children already enrolled in private schools, and the program would have used federal COVID-19 aid to pay for the first year, with funding taken from the state after federal dollars ran out.

Some also argued that $5,000 wouldn’t actually be enough to help lower-income families pay for private education. One Augusta resident who said she was at the federal poverty level asked if the education fund would help send her child to a private school.

“I’m not sure how you would do it at that poverty level because you’re only going to get your grant award, which wouldn’t cover but a fraction of the tuition,” Masterson said.

Guns

Masterson defended the idea of providing gun training at a young age after one Augusta resident spoke against a proposed NRA gun program for public schools.

The resident asked Masterson to carefully consider the bill, which has been debated for years. The proposed legislation, which was sent to the governor for consideration April 4, would encourage elementary and middle school students to participate in the Eddie Eagle program, an NRA-developed child gun safety curriculum.

From kindergarten through grade five, Kansas children in participating school districts would be instructed with the Eddie Eagle program, and grades six through eight would either use Eddie Eagle or other gun programs offered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

In an average year, 456 people die and 655 are wounded by guns in Kansas, according to Everytown for Gun Safety statistics. The organization estimated that gun deaths and injuries cost Kansas $5.7 billion each year, of which $95.1 million is paid by taxpayers.

Critics of the bill have said the training program isn’t effective. They lobby for stricter gun laws rather than child gun training.

“It is always an adult’s responsibility to prevent unauthorized access to guns, not a curious child’s responsibility to avoid guns,” said Cori Sherman North, a volunteer with the Kansas chapter of Moms Demand Action in an April 10 news release. “Kansas lawmakers should be passing bills to help curb gun violence, not misplacing responsibility on children.”

Masterson said he didn’t understand resistance to the program.

“As a gun owner myself and an advocate of the Second Amendment, I taught my own kids,” Masterson said. “When they were young, I’d set an unloaded gun out and see how they would respond to it. They’d answer what I told them to do.”

Williams said she believes most mass shooters are coming from fatherless households, though it is unclear where she got this statistic.

“Guns and the Second Amendment have been around since the founding of our nation. What is driving this change? If you look at the mass shooters that have occurred since Columbine, I believe the statistic is 75% come from fatherless homes,” Williams said. “I think what we need to do as a society is look at what’s impacting our kids, what’s causing harm to our kids.”

In their 2020 database records, the Violence Project, which tracks mass shooters, listed 29 out of 173 mass shooters  as coming from single-parent households, though there was no mention of a parent’s gender.

“Lawmakers should focus on actually taking measures to save lives from gun violence, not pushing narratives based in racist tropes,” said Tonya Boyd, a volunteer with the Kansas chapter of Moms Demand Action, in response for this story to Williams’ statement.

https://kansasreflector.com/2023/04/12/theyre-gaslighting-us-kansas-lawmakers-stray-from-facts-when-talking-about-public-schools/

[Rick Plant]

After ProPublica published the Clarence Thomas scandal of him accepting bribes from GOP billionaire Harlan Crow, another major scandal involving Thomas and Crow has come to light. We now learn that Harlan Crow bought real estate from Thomas which was not disclosed and kept hidden from the public. Thomas needs to resign in shame with this major conflict of interest.

Read the ProPublica exclusive below:

Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property from Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn't Disclose the Deal.
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus


Clarence Thomas' real estate sale is 'a clear violation of government ethics law': ProPublica reporter



Fresh off reports that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury travel and accommodations from billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan Crow without any disclosure, a new report reveals Thomas also sold Crow his family home without disclosing it — which experts say is a much more clear-cut violation of federal ethics laws.

ProPublica reporter Josh Kaplan, who broke the story, delved into more detail on CNN's "The Lead" Thursday.

"Explain the significance of what you found here, this 2014 real estate transaction between Justice Thomas and Mr. Crow," said anchor Jake Tapper.

"Yes, so we found that Harlan Crow bought property from Justice Thomas in a undisclosed real estate deal," said Kaplan. "Crow paid roughly $133,000 to Thomas and his relatives for three properties, one of which was the house, that old house that Thomas' mom was living in. And the other two were vacant lots down the street. And Thomas did not disclose this, which experts told us appears to be a clear violation of government ethics law."

"So as you said, I mean, last week we reported that Thomas had accepted numerous luxury trips from Crow, private jet flights, international yacht cruises, all in secret. And Crow and Thomas responded to that reporting by saying that they were just close friends, but this is the first direct, first known direct financial transaction between these two men."

"So correct me if I'm wrong , but in addition to not disclosing the sale of those properties in Savannah, Justice Thomas also had a space on the disclosure form to report the identity of the buyer, but he left it blank," said Tapper. "Is that right?"

"That is correct," said Kaplan. "Yes, he did not disclose the sale and also did not disclose who he was selling it to, which, you know the judiciary's forms at the time requested."

"Did you get any response from either Justice Thomas or Harlan Crow about your story?" Tapper pressed him.

"Yes so well, not from Justice Thomas," said Kaplan. "We went to Thomas with detailed questions, and he did not respond. Crow did tell us that he approached the Thomases about buying these properties, and that he intends to one day turn Thomas' mother's house into a museum, which to be clear, experts told us that Crow's intentions, whatever they may be, are irrelevant to the legal question of Thomas' obligation to disclose this transaction."

"Crow also didn't directly address why he bought also bought two other properties from Thomas, the vacant lots down the road, but he did say that he ultimately sold those to a builder who is committed to improving the neighborhood."

Watch:

He must be impeached': Calls for ouster of Clarence Thomas grow after latest bombshell



New revelations about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's business dealings with Texas Republican megadonor Harlan Crow on Thursday led to intensified calls for the right-wing justice's impeachment, as ProPublicareported on a previously undisclosed real estate transaction between the two men.

A week after the first report on Crow's funding of Thomas' travel was published, ProPublica revealed that Crow purchased two vacant lots and the home where Thomas' mother lived, all owned by Thomas and his family, in Savannah, Georgia in 2014.

The purchase, completed for $133,363, marked "the first known instance of money flowing from Crow to the Supreme Court justice," the news outlet reported.

Federal disclosure laws state that in most cases, Supreme Court justices and other government officials must disclose real estate transactions over $1,000.

"Thomas did not disclose the purchase as required by law. He must be impeached," said Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett.

Woah. Billionaire Harlan Crow didn’t just provide lavish travel and accommodations to Clarence Thomas—according to @propublica, he also bought property from him.

Thomas did not disclose the purchase as required by law. He must be impeached. https://propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus



Exceptions to the law include cases in which someone sells "property used solely as a personal residence of the reporting individual or the individual's spouse," but legal experts confirmed to ProPublica that the sale of the Savannah properties did not meet the criteria for any of the exemptions.

"He needed to report his interest in the sale," Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told ProPublica.

The news outlet's previous reporting on Crow and Thomas revealed that the billionaire paid for Thomas to travel on a Bombardier Global 5000 jet, to Crow's ranch in Texas, and to his private resort in the Adirondacks—all of which was left off federal disclosure forms.

"Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets," Canter said of the real estate sale in Savannah.

Crow released a statement on Thursday saying he had purchased Thomas' family home—which he still owns and where the justice's mother continued living until at least 2020, according to public records—to "one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation's second black Supreme Court Justice."

"I approached the Thomas family about my desire to maintain this historic site so future generations could learn about the inspiring life of one of our greatest Americans," said Crow.

Critics suggested the statement raised more questions than it answered.

"Clarence Thomas previously said that free flights on Harlan Crow's private jet counted as 'hospitality' and thus did not have to be disclosed," saidSlate journalist Mark Joseph Stern. "That made no sense, but this is even worse. How is a covert real estate deal that enriched Thomas 'hospitality'? This is pretty brazen."

Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs for Stand Up America, said the new reporting offers clear evidence that "Justice Thomas' vote on the Supreme Court is bought and paid for by right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow."

"Crow is not, as Thomas claims, his 'dearest friend' so much as his corrupt benefactor," said Edkins. "Thomas is unfit to serve on any court, let alone our nation's highest court. His failure to disclose his close financial dealings with a GOP billionaire has single-handedly destroyed what little credibility this MAGA Court had left."

"Failing to hold Justice Thomas accountable, hold hearings, and pass a Supreme Court code of ethics," he added, would be a dereliction of duty by federal lawmakers.

Demand Justice released polling data showing that 70% of Americans would back a federal investigation into alleged ethics violations of Supreme Court justices.

"This shady land deal amounts to a payoff of a sitting Supreme Court justice, plain and simple. Senate Democrats need to announce a thorough investigation into the details of Clarence Thomas' ties to Harlan Crow, including calling witnesses to get to the bottom of their financial relationship and Thomas' apparent lawbreaking," said Demand Justice executive director Brian Fallon.

"[Former Supreme Court Justice] Abe Fortas resigned under threat of impeachment for less," he noted, "and while impeachment may not be possible here with Republicans in control of the House, Thomas needs to face real accountability for his likely illegal behavior. Polls show that if Senate Democrats act, the public will strongly support them."

https://www.rawstory.com/he-must-be-impeached-calls-for-ouster-of-clarence-thomas-grow-after-latest-bombshell/

[Rick Plant]

Whitmer signs gun control bills passed in response to deadly MSU shooting



EAST LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bills to combat gun violence Thursday, two months after a mass shooting on the campus of Michigan State University left three students dead and five injured.

Whitmer, a Democrat, approved the measures that have been sought by members of her party for years during an event at MSU.

The proposals, which take effect next year, will expand background check requirements for firearm purchases and institute new storage standards for guns kept in homes where children are present.

"All of these initiatives are supported by a majority of Michiganders," Whitmer said. "I've gotten letters from all across our state asking for us to get this done."

Republican lawmakers have contended the bills won't prevent future shootings but will infringe on constitutional rights.

Hundreds of people gathered Thursday morning inside Spartan Stadium for the governor's bill signing ceremony, including Democratic lawmakers and supporters of the group Moms Demand Action. Passage of the bills followed weeks of protests at the state Capitol, where students called on lawmakers to take action to respond to the violence at MSU.

To start the event Thursday, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II asked for a moment of silence to remember those lost to gun violence.

"Out of that silence comes action," Gilchrist said.

"It's a new day," Gilchrist added.

The bill signing occurred 59 days after the MSU shooting — the campus is about four miles east of the Capitol building — and 499 days after a 15-year-old boy killed four fellow students at Oxford High School in Oakland County.

Whitmer said the bills would take Michigan one step closer to having "common sense gun policy."

"Gun violence is a scourge that is unique to this country and that's why we are taking action," Whitmer said.

At the time of the Oxford shooting, Republicans controlled the Legislature and declined to take up gun control bills. Democrats won majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years in the November election, providing a political path for the proposals to get to Whitmer.

"We don't have to live like this," Whitmer said, "and today we're showing we don't have to anymore."

Jo Kovach, MSU's student body president, said the legislation marked the first step toward making

"Something that all 40,000 of us know is that we never want anyone else to have to go through what we've gone through," Kovach said.

Michigan law currently requires an individual to obtain a license before purchasing a pistol, which forces buyers to undergo a criminal background check. But long guns purchased from private sellers can be transferred without a criminal history check.

"That doesn't make any sense," Whitmer said Thursday.

The current background check prevents people with a previous felony on their record or a court order for involuntary hospitalization related to mental health from owning a piston, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency.

Under the new measures, the licensing and background check requirements would be expanded to all types of firearms. But the change wouldn't apply to purchases that occurred before the bill's effective date.

The background check bills exempt people under the age of 18 who use their guns for hunting or who possess the guns under the supervision of a parent or guardian.

The storage bills would require individuals who have firearms at home where a minor is present to keep the guns in a locked box or have them unloaded and locked.

Rep. Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, said he was proud the state was taking steps to "curb senseless gun violence.""Safe storage and mandatory background checks will save lives," Puri said.

A third set of so-called "red flag" bills would allow a spouse, family member, a former spouse or a mental health professional to seek a court order temporarily barring someone from owning or purchasing a firearm. The Michigan House is poised to vote on those bills as soon as today.

Whitmer said Thursday she looks forward to signing the bill.

"We've heard too many times about family and friends express concern about shooters without any action taken," Whitmer said.

Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-West Bloomfield, said she was sorry it had taken so long for lawmakers to act.

"Today, we're taking action," Bayer said, receiving applause from the crowd.

© The Detroit News



Democrats plan Jim Jordan's next hearing to be a referendum on him and the GOP: report



House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan's plan to hold a hearing to attack the credibility of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg may blow up in his face with Democrats serving notice that they plan to turn the tables and make it all about the Ohio Republican and his party.

According to a report from the Washington Post, Democratic lawmakers who sit on the Jordan-led committee have every intention of pointing to Republicans dragging their feet on criminal violence reform if he complains about New York City's crime rates.

Add to that, they plan to call out the controversial lawmaker for wasting everyone's time while he preens for the Fox News audience.

"The emerging details are already shining a harsh light on what you might call the 'governing by Fox News' problem, in which Republicans use committee hearings to create right-wing media boomlets but ultimately run into the buzzsaw of outside scrutiny," the Post's Greg Sargent reported.

With Jordan expected to drag victims of Manhattan street crime in to tell their stories on camera, Democrats will counter by listing off the almost daily mass shootings in the U.S. that Republicans refuse to address in a realistic manner.

According to Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) who has become a thorn in Jordan's side since joining the committee, "We are eager to use this as an opportunity to highlight what is the real pressing issue in terms of public safety around the country. And that’s the prevalence of assault weapons.”

Sargent adds, "Committee Democrats, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), also plan to push back against lurid and widely debunked GOP claims about Bragg, New York City and crime. Among these claims: Bragg didn’t prosecute an alleged murder on the subway (he did); crime in Manhattan is at record highs (that’s nonsense); Bragg is a wholly owned puppet of George Soros (that’s pure fantasy talk); and the judge hearing Trump’s case is a Trump-hater (even Trump’s own lawyer won’t say this)."

Goldman explained that Democrats also plan to highlight how Donald Trump is pulling Jordan's strings, turning the GOP leaders into a taxpayer-funded "Trump legal team."

“It’s an opportunity for the public to learn exactly the degree of coordination and collusion between House Republican leadership and Donald Trump,” Goldman promised.

You can read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/13/jim-jordan-hearing-alvin-bragg-fox-news-trump-indictment/



Watch: GOP senator repeatedly refuses to say if he supports nationwide abortion ban



Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is widely expected to launch a bid for the presidency in the coming weeks, traveled to New Hampshire this week, where he fielded several questions about abortion.

While talking with reporters in the city of Manchester on Thursday, Scott was asked directly whether he'd favor a federal ban on abortion.

"I would simply say that, the fact of the matter is, when you look at the issue of abortion, one of the challenges we have, we continue to go to the most restrictive conversations without broadening the scope and taking a look at the fact that. I'm 100 percent pro-life, I never walk away from that," he replied.

"But the truth of the matter is that when you look at the issues on abortion, I start with the various important conversations I had in a banking hearing, when I was sitting in my office and I was listening to Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, talk about increasing the labor force participation rate for African-American women who are in poverty by having abortions," Scott continued. "I think we're just having the wrong conversation."

"I ran down to the banking hearing to see if I heard her right," he said. "Are you actually saying that a mom like mine should have an abortion so that we increase the labor force participation rate? That just seems ridiculous to me. So, I'm going to continue to have a serious conversation about the issues that affect the American people and I'm going to start by pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of the left on this, one of the more important issues."

Scott was then asked if he could provide a "clear message on that" but ignored the question.

Republicans have been scrambling on the issue of abortion lately, as multiple elections both in 2022 and 2023 have shown that strict abortion bans are a massively unpopular issue for the GOP.

Watch video in link:https://www.rawstory.com/tim-scott-abortion/



Florida lawmakers OK 6-week abortion ban backed by Gov. DeSantis



TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Rejecting Democratic efforts to change it, the Republican-controlled Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a near-total ban on abortion after six weeks, sending the bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis who has said he would sign it.

The 70-40 vote mostly along party lines in the House came during a daylong hearing where dozens of amendments proposed by Democrats were shot down one by one. The Senate approved the bill earlier this month.

The law would take effect only if the Florida Supreme Court rejects a challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s existing 15-week ban in a case pending before it.

“We have the opportunity to lead the nation on protecting life and giving every child the opportunity to be born and find his or her purpose,” bill sponsor Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, said at the end of a debate that lasted more than seven hours.

Stephanie Fraim, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said she anticipates a wave of people further along than six weeks will try to get an abortion before it’s too late, as has been seen in other states prior to six-week or all-out bans.

Planned Parenthood will aim to expand clinic hours and appointment availability to provide abortions to as many people as possible, likely up until midnight on the day the law begins.

”The reality is some people will not get in (to the clinic) in time,” Fraim said.

The vote came after hours of emotionally charged debate full of personal stories and quotes from the Bible that pitted abortion-rights supporters Democrats against anti-abortion Republicans, several of whom proclaimed the prevailing conservative Christian view that life begins at conception.

“Either you value life or you don’t, it’s really that simple,” said Rep. Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange. “What this is about for me personally is upholding the flagship commitment I made when I became an elected official to give a voice to the voiceless and speak for those that physically cannot speak for themselves at every stage of life.”

Noting that it’s a felony to destroy a sea turtle or alligator egg, Rep. Shane Abbott, R-Marianna, said, “We’re willing to protect an unborn alligator and an unborn sea turtle, but we’re here debating whether it’s worth protecting an unborn human.”

State Rep. Hillary Cassel, D-Dania Beach, urged her Republican female colleagues to “put your religion aside and stand with the women of the state … support their choice, their decision. It’s not yours.”

Democrats warned that the six-week ban would put women in peril, forcing them to carry dead fetuses for months and potentially getting sepsis or bleeding to death because they couldn’t get an abortion within the tight time frame. They also said women would go back to risking their lives to get illegal abortions.

Abortion is a moral right left to the woman alone, Rep. Rita Harris, D-Orlando said.

“I don’t need the Constitution or any constitution to have agency over my body,” Harris said. “The right to my body is an innate right. We don’t want unclear laws and muddy waters giving pause to doctors for saving a woman’s life.”

While introducing an amendment to rename the bill the “Forced Pregnancy Act,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said Floridians overwhelmingly oppose abortion bans.

“We are hearing from constituents about their bodily autonomy and ability to choose their destiny,” said Eskamani, a former employee of Planned Parenthood. “You should be able to choose having a child and raising it, giving it up for adoption, or ending the pregnancy. This amendment gives truth to the bill that it forces people into pregnancy before they know they are pregnant.”

It failed to pass, along with an amendment to postpone the law until “21 years after the death of the last surviving descendant of King Charles III, King of England, who is alive on July 1, 2023.”

“It worked for Disney, I thought it would work for me,” Eskamani said, referring to a last-minute declaration of restrictive covenants approved by the Reedy Creek Improvement District before it was dissolved and reconstituted under a law signed by DeSantis.

House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, signaled in advance on Wednesday that the 48-plus amendments introduced by Democrats would not pass. “We’re not going to change the abortion bill at this point,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade opened the doors for states to decide for themselves what’s best for their residents, Renner said. He said the Legislature could go even stricter but he didn’t think that is what most Floridians want.

“I believe this is the right place to be. We’ve done our level best to hit a spot that’s fair,” he said, noting that he believes life begins at conception.

About two hours into the debate and after several warnings about outbursts from the audience, the Sergeant at Arms was ordered to clear the gallery after members of Occupy Tally dropped thousands of stickers and flyers describing their personal abortion stories from the balcony.

Renner said rigorous protest needed to be conducted outside the House chamber, not inside where it could interrupt the proceedings.

While the abortion bill moved through its final stages in the Senate and House, pro-choice protesters camped out and held press conferences at the Leon County Courthouse across the street from the Capitol. Among the protesters was Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, who was arrested on a trespassing charge last week for protesting outside Tallahassee City Hall after an 8 p.m. curfew.

The proposal is a near-total abortion ban because many women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks, opponents say. It also bans using telehealth services to get abortion services. And it provides $25 million for “pregnancy support and wellness” services through a network of nonmedical centers that are required to promote childbirth.

It also provides funding for nonmedical things like cribs, diapers and car seats.

The legislation includes exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking up to 15 weeks, but a woman or girl must provide “a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation” providing evidence of the crime.

It also includes exceptions for the life of the mother or to avert “serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment.”

But it requires two doctors to sign off on an abortion exception for medical reasons. That’s a difficult requirement for people living in rural areas and other parts of the state where there are doctor shortages, opponents said.

Dr. Robyn Schickler, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said the two-doctor requirement has resulted in physicians refusing to perform surgery or prescribe medicine that aids women who are having miscarriages until the situation becomes life-threatening.

”It’s already bad at 15 weeks, but obviously taking away another nine weeks of that time is going to have such a significant impact,” Schickler said. “An example would be a patient who is potentially having a miscarriage ... when do you say she’s bleeding enough to do the procedure?”

One doctor can authorize an abortion if another doctor is unavailable and there is an “imminent” risk of death or irreversible harm to the mother. Abortion would be allowed if a “fatal fetal abnormality” is detected, and the pregnancy has not progressed to the third trimester.

© Orlando Sentinel

[Rick Plant]

FBI arrests 21-year-old Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking classified documents

FBI agents took Jack Teixeira into custody Thursday afternoon “without incident,” Attorney General Merrick Garland announced.



WASHINGTON — Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested by federal authorities Thursday in connection with their investigation into classified documents that were leaked on the internet.

FBI agents took Teixeira into custody Thursday afternoon "without incident," Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in brief remarks at the Justice Department, which has been conducting a criminal investigation.

"Today, the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information. Teixeira is an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard," Garland said.

Teixeira will have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, said Garland, who added that the investigation is ongoing. He declined to take questions from the media.

FBI agents arrested Teixeira at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, the bureau's office in Boston said in a statement. The residence is more than an hour from the military base where he worked.

"The FBI is continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at the residence," the statement said. "Since late last week the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk."

Military records show that Teixeira holds the rank of airman first class and has been in uniform since he entered the Air National Guard in September 2019. He has been based at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod and is assigned as a cyber transport systems journeyman.

A Facebook post in July from the 102nd Intelligence Wing, which is headquartered at that base, congratulated a person with Teixeira’s name on a promotion to airman first class.

U.S. officials had been searching for the source of the leak, which exposed potentially hundreds of pages of intelligence about Russian efforts in Ukraine and spying on U.S. allies.

The Pentagon press secretary, Air Force Brig. Gen Pat Ryder, declined to confirm the suspect's identity at a briefing Thursday and referred reporters to the Justice Department because it's a "law enforcement matter" and an ongoing investigation, he said.

The Defense Department is "working around the clock" with the intelligence community, Ryder said, "to better understand the scope, scale of these leaks." Ryder also said the Pentagon is "very limited" in what it can say about the documents themselves.

Asked about the intelligence activities of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, where Teixeira worked, Ryder said, "In general, intelligence wings throughout the Air Force support what you might imagine — Air Force intelligence requirements worldwide to support a variety of types of intelligence missions and requirements, which include active guard and reserve components."

The classified documents from the Defense Department were found online last month — how long they had been on the internet and the total number that have been posted remain unclear. They revealed details about U.S. spying on Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine and secret assessments of Ukraine’s combat power, as well as intelligence-gathering on America’s allies, including South Korea and Israel, NBC News has reported.

President Joe Biden suggested Thursday morning that officials appeared to be nearing a breakthrough in their investigation.

"There’s a full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with the Intelligence Committee and the Justice Department, and they’re getting close," Biden told reporters in Ireland.

Two White House officials later confirmed that the president has been briefed about Teixeira's arrest.

The suspect’s identity was first reported Thursday by The New York Times, which said he was the leader of a small online gaming group where the documents were first leaked.

The Washington Post has reported about the gaming group, identifying its leader only as "OG." The main source for the story was a member of the group on the platform Discord, a minor who was granted anonymity. The Post said it reviewed about 300 photos of classified documents the suspect is alleged to have leaked, most of which the report said have not been made public.

NBC News has not yet verified the details about the gaming group or that it was where the classified documents were first shared.

In a statement after Teixeira’s arrest, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed said: "This was a major security breach that cannot be allowed to happen again. Leaking this trove of classified information endangered our military and intelligence professionals and undermined the security of our allies and partners.

"Anyone with a security clearance who betrays their country by purposefully mishandling classified documents or disclosing classified materials must be held accountable," Reed, D-R.I., added.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said in a statement that his panel will "examine why this happened, why it went unnoticed for weeks, and how to prevent future leaks."

Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were briefed about the disclosure last week, administration officials said. That was when the White House learned about the existence of the documents in the public domain, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week.

According to Bellingcat, the online open-source investigative group, the documents appeared in early March on the Discord social media app. Some documents may have appeared as early as January, the group said.

Eoghan Macguire, a researcher and editor who helped break the story at Bellingcat, said the documents were passed around three separate Discord servers before they were broadly made public on the extremist site 4chan.

Kirby said that the Pentagon is "leading an interagency effort here to review whatever national security implications might come out of all this" and that the Justice Department is leading a criminal investigation.

He also said it appears some of the classified documents had been altered from their original form. Kirby said Biden administration officials spent last weekend contacting "relevant allies and partners" and "at very high levels" to reassure them about the leaks.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-officials-identify-leaked-classified-documents-suspect-21-year-old-rcna79577


Arkansas moves to repeal decades-old desegregation measure



Arkansas’ top law enforcement official has advanced new measures that from a civil rights standpoint would bring a large swath of a state with a history of discrimination back to the future.

Attorney General Tim Griffin earlier this week filed four briefs that aim to repeal federal desegregation supervision that would effectively exempt four South Arkansas school districts from state laws preventing students from enrolling in schools outside their home districts, The Arkansas Times reports.

The measure dovetails with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Arkansas LEARNS Act, an educational overhaul package that promotes vouchers. Proponents of the measure say it will opportunities for low-income families, but critics say it will undermine public education.

Griffin’s filings aim to end federal desegregation supervision in Camden Fairview, Hope, Lafayette County and Junction City districts.

He said segregation no longer exists in Arkansas schools and that the supervision is now unnecessary.

Griffin in a statement described the civil rights measures his filings would upend as “unconstitutional, race-based consent decrees from decades past are denying equal rights to parents to select the school that best meets the needs of their children.”

“Despite segregation ending decades ago, several school districts have left outdated consent decrees on the books and rely on them to opt out of school choice, thereby avoiding competition and retaining funds for students who would otherwise leave,” his statement said.

“Schools must be accountable to parents, and children should not be stuck in schools that aren’t meeting their needs. Parents, not the government, must be allowed to decide what’s best for their children.”

Whitney Moore, an attorney who represents the four districts, defended the existing desegregation supervision, and said vouchers would promote “white flight” that would have a “segregative impact.”

"This is about remedying the effects of past de jure segregation and, as a remedy, race-based measures are constitutional," Moore told The Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

"Through the years, all of these districts have taken the position that they are non-discriminatory in their operations but the white flight issue persists and therefore, participating in school choice has a segregative impact."

Read More Here: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2023/04/13/south-arkansas-school-resegregation-likely-as-ag-taps-courts-to-erase-integration-measures


Leaked audio reveals furious infighting among Tennessee GOP over ousted Black Democrats

A leaked audio recording obtained by The Tennessee Holler reveals furious infighting among Tennessee Republicans as they took criticism for the ouster of Black Democratic State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.

The audio begins with Tennessee State Rep. Jason Zachary ripping into Democrats for accusing him of being a racist, while also calling out fellow State Rep. Jody Barrett for apparently flip-flopping on voting to expel Democratic State Rep. Gloria Johnson, the one white Democrat who was targeted for expulsion.

"You straight-up came to me and said you were 100 percent where I was!" Zachary charged to Barrett. "And you went on the House floor and you did the opposite. Man, you hung us out to dry!"

Barrett, however, shot back and argued that the resolution to expel Johnson was "poorly drafted" and he said he could not support something that "was going to be in the annals of history as being wrong."

Tennessee State Rep. Scott Cepicky, however, argued that the circumstances were so dire that Republicans needed to stay united against the Democrats no matter what.

"If you don't believe we're at war for our republic, with all love and respect to you, you need a different job," he said. "The left wants Tennessee so bad because, if they get us, the southeast falls and it's game over for the republic. This is not a neighborhood social gathering. We are fighting for the republic of our country right now!"

Listen to the full audio at this link: https://twitter.com/i/status/1646548124272324608

[Rick Plant]

Donald Trump's and the right wing media's favorite Republican pollster Rasmussen has President Biden at a 48% approval rating taken on April 13th. 

https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/current_events/politics/prez_track_apr13


President Biden @POTUS

The United States and Ireland know the value of democracy.
 
And today, we stand together – for liberty and against tyranny – to oppose Russia’s brutal war of aggression and support the brave people of Ukraine.




As the United States and Ireland celebrate our enduring partnership, let us harness our shared values and set our eyes squarely on the future.

Let us once more strive to make hope and history rhyme.

My thanks to the House of Oireachtas for the warm Irish welcome.


 

Mr. President, it’s great to see you again.

Just as you did in 2016 and 2017, you’ve shown me a hundred thousand welcomes.




This week, we commemorate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement – a feat that took people coming together in good faith to work for a better future.

Today, @PresidentIRL and I rang the Peace Bell and planted a tree to celebrate peace and recommit to sustained progress.




I’ll say this for Irish pubs: they really put you to work.




Arriving in Ireland is like coming home.




Let us celebrate 25 extraordinary years of the Good Friday Agreement by recommitting to renewal, to repair, and to making this exceptional peace the birthright of every child of Northern Ireland for all the days to come.



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1646254003443978244