Dem Gov. Pritzker: FL’s DeSantis is Trump in a mask and GOP likes white extremism
Illinois' Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered a blistering speech in Tampa SaPersonay equating Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis with former president Donald Trump and condemning him for doing more to “protect” Floridians from LGBTQ children and immigrants than from white nationalism and gun violence.
As keynote speaker at the Florida Democratic Party’s annual leadership conference, Pritzker urged Democrats to call out white nationalism and gun violence as domestic terrorism and to campaign against Republican candidates — including DeSantis — who do not.
“This pattern is a clear domestic terrorism threat,” Pritzker said. “He is happy to pick on LGBTQ kids and immigrants, but God forbid he calls out what the FBI refers to as our most pressing security threat: the rise of white extremism.
“Ditch cautious rhetoric and even more cautious electoral strategy, and start speaking honestly … about the dangers democracy is facing from the MAGA Republican party,” Pritzker said, prompting a standing ovation from the audience, estimated at 2,000 at the sold-out event.
Pritzker, governor of the state where a gunman murdered seven people and wounded scores more on July 4 at a parade in Highland Park, on the North Shore of Chicago, said it is true that preventing violence crime requires investments in intervention programs, mental health, and law enforcement, but he said those are not enough.
“Make no mistake, dealing with crime also involves getting guns off the streets. Ultimately, we need a federal assault weapons ban,” the governor said, also calling for national attention to “an epidemic of young men enamored with white nationalism” killing people in mass with assault weapons.”
Pritzker said the national Republican Party is “obsessed” with MAGA politics and weakening support for Democrats by ginning up fury and fear over problems that pale in comparison with gun violence and loss of abortion rights.
“Here is where the Republican game plan is the most audacious: They want to distract you into believing that gay marriage, black history, Disney World and library books are more of a threat to our children than AR-15s,” Pritzker said, and the audience rose to its feet in applause. “Don’t tell us that a 10-year-old is too young to learn about the history of slavery but not too young to run active-shooter drills when she learns how to play dead.”
Citing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down abortion rights in place for nearly 50 years under Roe v. Wade, Pritzker called the Republican Party hypocritical for seeking that outcome in the name of “pro-life.”
“No part of the Republican agenda is about life. Give me one example of the Republican Party showing up for life in this country,” Pritzker said, arguing that it is the Democratic Party that supports life by expanding health care, supporting reproductive freedom, supporting humane immigration policies, and promoting diversity in American society.
“Get ready, because the next thing on their to-do list is a nationwide abortion ban,” Pritzker said.
To stop the “GOP insanity” of the MAGA agenda, he said, Democrats such as he, Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and President Joe Biden should stand firm for Democratic principles and elect more Democrats, especially to the U.S. Senate and the presidency.
“Floridians, you can stop national Republicans in their tracks if you elect Val Demings to the U.S. Senate,” Pritzker said, and the room burst into cheers, sign-waving and noise-making.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Demings, an Orlando Democrat challenging Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, also delivered a rousing speech, citing Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud to attack voting rights, the Supreme Court’s anti-abortion ruling after Trump appointed three conservatives to the bench, and Rubio’s record of opposing abortion rights and gun-violence prevention.
“Ours is the only party fighting for the Constitution, rule of law, and our democracy,” Demings said, brandishing a fist.
Demings, former police chief in Orlando, was on the House Democratic team that impeached President Trump in 2019 for using his role as U.S. president to pressure the president of Ukraine for political favors. (The Republican-led Senate did not concur in the impeachment). She said those are “tough jobs” that she chose to do and of which she is proud.
“We’re not going back. We’re not shutting up. We’re going to fight,” she said.
https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/07/17/dem-gov-pritzker-fls-desantis-is-trump-in-a-mask-and-gop-likes-white-extremism/OK Republican bought up to $30,000 in defense stocks while pushing for more military spending
On Monday, Business Insider reported that a prominent House Republican on a budget task force bought up to $30,000 in stocks for two major defense contractors — as he pushed for an increase to the federal military budget.
"Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma and his wife invested up to $15,000 in Raytheon Technologies and up to $15,000 in Lockheed Martin, according to a recently filed federal financial disclosure. Members of Congress are only required to disclose the value of their investments in broad ranges," reported Madison Hall. "Raytheon Technologies is a defense contractor that creates drones, guided missiles, air defense systems, and other weapons platforms. Lockheed Martin similarly produces missiles and aerospace vehicles used in military operations."
"Raytheon and Lockheed Martin's products have also been used in the war in Ukraine. In May, Insider identified 20 lawmakers who are invested in the two companies and were set to profit from the $40 billion Ukraine aid package that was later signed into action by President Joe Biden," said the report. "Hern is a member of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of GOP House representatives that 'provides the tools and research that members of Congress need to craft and advance policies,' according to the committee's site. As the chair of the committee's Budget and Spending Task Force, Hern and the committee released an alternative budget for the 2023 fiscal year that vows to cut $16.6 trillion in spending over 10 years while increasing defense funding by 5% to $845 billion."
All of this comes amid a new wave of controversy over how members of Congress in both parties buy and sell individual stocks while legislating policy on the companies in question. As the report noted, "Only about a dozen members of Congress — Hern is not among them — have reported using what's known as a qualified blind trust, a formal arrangement, requiring congressional approval, in which a lawmaker officially transfers management of their financial assets to an independent trustee."
Officially, the STOCK Act of 2012 is designed to curb insider trading in Congress by requiring members to disclose their investments publicly, but in practice, many members don't even comply with this requirement.
The scope of the ongoing misconduct has prompted calls to ban members of Congress and their immediate families from trading individual stocks altogether — a proposal that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) originally viewed with skepticism but eventually endorsed.
Read More Here: https://www.businessinsider.com/defense-contractor-stock-kevin-hern-congress-lockheed-martin-raytheon-2022-7Manchin directed millions in federal funds to wildlife area near his condo: reportAfter refusing to support a stripped-down version of the reconciliation package to invest billions of dollars in federal funds to combat climate change and obstructing other federal efforts to protect the environment, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and his wife, Gayle Manchin, have directed millions of federal dollars to a region in West Virginia where the couple owns a condo, The Intercept reports.
"Hundreds of miles north of the coal communities decimated by the mountaintop removal mining that Manchin fostered in the state, the Manchins’ Canaan Valley residence sits in an unadulterated watershed, surrounded by the Dolly Sods Wilderness, the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and Blackwater Falls State Park," The Intercept's Daniel Boguslaw writes.
According to Boguslaw, Manchin "used his spot on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee" to secure $7 million in funds to rebuild the visitor center at the refuge, which is less than a mile from his condo. But despite his continued efforts to preserve the region, Boguslaw says that the West Virginia Senator has been "holding federal climate legislation hostage."
Gayle Manchin, who was appointe to head the Appalachian Regional Commission last year, recently secured another $25,000 in funding for source water analysis in the valley and a $1.2 million “POWER” grant to connect and improve trails in the area.
Boguslaw writes that Gayle Manchin "has directed millions of dollars in federal grants to projects tied to her personal investments," adding that Manchin has supported "some of the most environmentally catastrophic fossil fuel extraction projects in the country while launching attacks on the federal government’s ability to pursue environmental regulation as the chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources."
Read More Here: https://theintercept.com/2022/07/18/joe-gayle-manchin-condo-climate-canaan-valley/
