Last Call For Greg's Gone Wrong, Too

Not to be outdone by Florida making Black history illegal, Texas is making both Black and Latino history illegal, with new legislation that would ban Black and Latino studies courses and end diversity at Texas universities.

Latino and Black leaders in Texas pushed back on claims that diversity and inclusion hiring programs are illegal as the vast University of Texas System put a hold on such programs at its institutions and campuses.

Kevin Eltife, chairman of the system's board of regents, announced Wednesday that he was delaying new policies on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and launching a review of all of them. The announcement at a board meeting, with no discussion or vote, was reported first by The Austin American-Statesman.

Eltife, a former state senator appointed to the board by Abbott, also a Republican, said that within UT campuses “some DEI efforts have strayed from the original intent to now imposing requirements and actions that rightfully has raised concerns of our policy makers.”

No examples of DEI programs that have strayed were provided at the meeting or in response to an NBC News request.

Eltife’s stop on new policies follows a declaration by Abbott's chief of staff in a letter dated Feb. 4 to state agencies that DEI "has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others." The letter, first reported by The Texas Tribune and posted on Twitter by KHOU in Houston, went on to say that a state agency spending tax dollars to pay for DEI initiatives and resources connected with them is illegal.

That declaration from a higher education system of 13 institutions and more than 244,000 students is drawing pushback from Black and Latino lawmakers and organizations.

Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said DEI programs are set up through legal departments and are conservative in nature so as not to run afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws.

"It is a complete misrepresentation to say that DEI programs are illegal and that they violate the Constitution or any statute, because they don't," said Bledsoe, who also is a founder of the Black and Brown Dialogue on Policy. The multiracial, cultural group seeks to confront what it says is a "growing threat of racism and policies meant to undermine our human dignity and humanity."

 

It's racist to teach Black American and Latino American history, you guys!

 

Of course the real reason is to get Black and Latino folks to leave the state, and destroy the culture and history of those who remain.

 

So that white folks aren't made "uncomfortable".  That's all that really matters.

Ukraine In The Membrane, Con't

The anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine this week marks renewed efforts from the Pentagon to help Kyiv fight back with another round of war-fighting technology.

 

The Pentagon announced a new package of long-term security assistance for Ukraine on Friday, marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion with a $2 billion commitment to send more rounds of ammunition and a variety of small, high-tech drones into the fight.

The announcement comes just days after President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and pledged America’s continuing commitment to Ukraine. Biden told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people that “Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

In a statement Friday, the Pentagon said the aid includes weapons to counter Russia’s unmanned systems and several types of drones, including the upgraded Switchblade 600 Kamikaze drone, as well as electronic warfare detection equipment.

It also includes money for additional ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, artillery rounds and munitions for laser-guided rocket systems. But, in an unusual move, the Pentagon provided no details on how many rounds of any kind will be bought. Including this latest package, the U.S. has now committed more than $32 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion is a chance for all who believe in freedom “to recommit ourselves to supporting Ukraine’s brave defenders for the long haul — and to recall that the stakes of Russia’s war stretch far beyond Ukraine.”

 

But increasingly, what Ukrainian officials want, and say they need, is commitment for a major counteroffensive to push Russia out for good.  WaPo's Josh Rogin:

As the Ukraine war enters its second year, the Biden administration is pledging to support Kyiv for “as long as it takes.” That language is calculated to send a message of resolve to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but it’s not what Ukrainians want to hear. Though they’re fighting valiantly, Ukrainians are also suffering greatly — and they are begging the West to help them speed up the war, not settle in for an endless slog.

Just a few days before the anniversary of Putin’s unprovoked invasion last year, Biden visited Kyiv and made a rousing speech in Poland promising that the West “will never waver” in the fight for freedom and democracy. A few days earlier, Vice President Harris took the stage at the Munich Security Conference to declare America’s endless commitment to the Ukraine effort.

“The daily agony of war will persist,” she said. “But if Putin thinks he can wait us out, he is badly mistaken. Time is not on his side.”

Nearly all the Ukrainian officials I met in Munich respectfully disagree. It’s not just about weapons (although they insist that more and better weapons are badly and quickly needed). These Ukrainian officials say they’re worried that the Biden administration’s stance could undermine support for Kyiv’s strategy, which is to accelerate the war effort now and avoid a protracted stalemate.

For them, an endless war means a win for Putin and the loss of their country as they know it.

“We are very grateful for the support that is coming, but there is one phrase that makes us very concerned,” Ukrainian member of parliament Yelyzaveta Yasko told me. “Many leaders right now are saying, ‘We will support you as long as it takes.’ And we feel this phrase is quite dangerous.” 

 

That will be difficult to do though as the GOP Circus of the Damned are increasingly signaling they will block aid on the scale Kyiv needs to win. 

The topic of Ukraine funding will be front and center when both spending fights and presidential politics heat up later this year. Republicans are seeking to rein in spending across the federal government now that they control the House and will have leverage in negotiations to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, while conservatives on the campaign trail are looking to contrast their priorities against Biden’s in the prelude to the 2024 election cycle.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday on Fox News that US aid to Ukraine was little more than an “open-ended blank check” – a sentiment shared by a handful of House Republicans who have growing power in a narrowly divided Congress.

For now, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill still view it differently, setting up a clash that could come next fall when the fight over government spending kicks into full gear. Republicans leaders will have to contend with a small but vocal bloc of anti-interventionists within their party who view military support for Ukraine as a prime example of US government waste. In a House of Representatives where Republicans control a razor-thin majority and conservative hardliners have a stranglehold on McCarthy’s speakership, those voices can’t simply be ignored.

 

So we'll see where this goes.

Welcome To Gunmerica, Two Gunmericas Edition

Remember that FOX News being the propaganda arm of the GOP is as much for Republican voters as it is everyone else.

 

So yeah, spend all day screaming about ILLEGALS BRINGING IN DRUGS and that's the main "threat".

Guns? Number one among Democrats, 4% among Republicans. More Republicans consider fat people a threat.

Gunmerica forever.

Last Call For The Road To Gilead, Con't

A major new national poll conducted by PRRI finds a majority of Americans in most states want abortion legalized in most or all cases, and even in Republican states, only a small percentage want it completely illegal.

 

Just under two-thirds of Americans (64%) say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while roughly one-third (34%) say it should be illegal in most or all cases. More granularly, 30% say abortion should be legal in all cases, 34% say it should be legal in most cases, 25% say it should be illegal in most cases, and just 9% say it should be illegal in all cases.

The share of Americans who say abortion should be legal in most or all cases has continued to increase since PRRI began tracking abortion legality in 2010, when it was at 55%. The share of those who say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases has shrunk (from 42% in 2010 to 34% now), with the proportion who say abortion should be illegal in all cases seeing the largest decline (from 15% in 2010 to 9% now).

However, there has been little movement in attitudes about abortion’s legality in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022. In March 2022, 64% of Americans felt that abortion should be legal, as did a similar share in June (65%). After Dobbs, support for abortion’s legality remained fairly constant in August (64%), September (62%), and December (65%).

Looking at the opposing viewpoint, the share of Americans who say abortion should be illegal in most cases has been stable, but the share who say it should be illegal in all cases has declined slightly over the past year: from 11% in September 2021 to 7% in December 2022.

Just under four in ten Republicans say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases (36% across 2022), while 63% say it should be illegal in most or all cases. Support for legal abortion among Republicans has mostly wavered between 30% and 40% since 2010, while support for abortion being illegal has mostly wavered between 60% and 70% since 2010.

Among Republicans, belief that abortion should be illegal in all cases has declined: in September 2021, 21% of Republicans said abortion should be illegal in all cases, compared to 14% who said the same in December 2022, after the Dobbs decision. Prior to 2022, roughly two in ten Republicans opposed abortion in all cases, a share that had held steady since at least 2010.

Republican women (17%) are about as likely as Republican men (14%) to say abortion should be illegal in all cases. However, in March 2022, 20% of Republican women believed abortion should be illegal in all cases, compared to 15% who said the same in December. Republican men’s attitudes did not shift significantly during the same time period (15% in March, 13% in December).

Nearly nine in ten Democrats want abortion to be legal in most or all cases (86% across 2022), including nearly half of Democrats (48%) who say abortion should be legal in all cases. Notably, however, support for abortion’s legality in most or all cases has gone up among Democrats, from 71% in 2010.

Throughout 2022, attitudes among Democrats overall remained relatively steady. However, the share of Democratic women who said abortion should be legal in all cases increased slightly, from 46% in March to 52% in December, while the share of Democratic men who said the same remained steady throughout 2022.

Views on abortion among independents generally mirror those of the country as a whole. Across 2022, 68% of independents said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 30% said it should be illegal in most or all cases. Views about abortion legality among both independent men and women remained relatively steady through the year.

 

 Of course the problem remains that red states are making abortion completely illegal, to the point of crinimalizing it for doctors and medical practitioners, and increasingly, women seeking abortions. If the vast majority of Americans, two-thirds, actually want access to abortion, the time to get rid of Republican lawmakers is now.

Sadly, that won't happen. No Republican who votes for one of the religious zealots believe that the women in their lives would ever actually enforce such a ban against them.

Ron's Gone Wrong, Con't

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis will now only allow events at the state capitol in Tallahassee, including protests and demonstrations, if the goals of groups holding events "align with the state" and the current regime.

 

The new rules specify that organizations must make their requests through DeSantis administration agency heads, the House speaker or any member of the Senate. The chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court can also ask on their behalf.

The DMS letters caught by surprise several groups that have for years requested space in the Capitol to host education events for their particular mission. There are dozens of annual events during the legislative session that include state universities having advocacy days, or specific advocacy groups holding informational and educational days in the Capitol during session to increase awareness of their issues of concern. Most events are uncontroversial and not tied to protesting specific issues being considered, or any specific piece of legislation.

“It seems counterintuitive to our rights that you have to ask an agency to ask on your behalf to use space at the Capitol to simply educate the Legislature,” said a lobbyist who for years has planned Capitol events for clients. “And only if your mission lines up with the agencies’ mission is having space for displays on DMS property potentially allowed.”

“Does this rule really protect the constitutional right to assembly, and the right to petition the governor for a redress of grievances,” added the person, who was granted anonymity because they were concerned about retribution for speaking against the new DeSantis administration policy.

The changes have created concern that any event deemed not in line with a DeSantis administration “mission” could be denied space, a situation that some fear would affect demonstrators who protest controversial pieces of legislation, a common hallmark of Florida’s legislative process.

Each year, protesters have filled the Capitol rotunda, generally in opposition to Republican legislative priorities because that party is in the majority, though recently anti-abortion protesters filled the Capitol to urge the GOP-dominated Legislature to pass legislation that would lessen the period of time a woman can have an abortion from the recently passed 15-week ban.

“It is absolutely absurd and against our First Amendment right,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando). “It does not surprise that as GOP bans abortions, attacks LGBTQ+ rights, bans books and passes corporate tax breaks that they want to suppress freedom of speech and First Amendment rights.”

The rule changes also define “demonstration activity,” which covers things like “demonstrating, parading, picketing, speech making, holding of vigils, sit-ins, or other similar activities conducted for the purpose of demonstrating approval or disapproval of government policies ... expressing a view on public issues, or bringing into public notice any issue or other matter.”

Those activities would be less regulated and still allowed outside the Capitol complex. But the new rules include language that allows DMS to request organizers “reduce in size and scope” their event.

 

The fascism is now on open display in the state and will continue for years to come. If we're not careful, this will be nationwide under a DeSantis federal regime, too.

 

Oh, and in DeSantis's Florida, we've now reached the point where journalists covering shootings are getting shot themselves. 

A Florida man suspected of killing a woman Wednesday returned to the scene hours later and shot four other people, killing a 9-year-old girl and a television news journalist, authorities said.

A Spectrum News 13 crew was in Pine Hills shortly after 4 p.m. covering the slaying of a woman in her 20s who had been found shot in the area around 11 a.m., Sheriff John Mina said.

Keith Melvin Moses, 19, the suspect in the woman's killing, returned and fired at the reporter and a photojournalist who were in or near a vehicle, Mina said.

The reporter, identified by Spectrum News 13 early Thursday morning as Dylan Lyons, died from his injuries, Mina said. The photojournalist, who the outlet identified as Jesse Walden, was critically injured.

Moses then went to a nearby home, walked inside and shot a woman and her 9-year-old daughter, the sheriff said. The girl died. The mother was critically injured.

The suspect was arrested in the area and is being charged in the initial slaying, Mina said. Moses will be charged in the four other shootings later, Mina said.

"The suspect is not saying much right now," Mina said. "It is unclear if he knew they were news media or not."

Mina said there is no apparent connection between Moses and the mother and the child who were shot Wednesday afternoon.

The woman killed earlier was an acquaintance of the suspect, he said.

 

This week, Florida Republicans are rushing through permitless concealed carry to make it even easier to have a gun to use when you get angry at someone. More people will die, more mothers, more 9-year-olds, more journalists covering previous shootings. DeSantis, of course, doesn't give a damn.

The Galleria Of Crime, Con't

Jared and Ivanka get to talk to Special Counsel Jack Smith for a bit as the federal criminal investigation(s) into Donald Trump continue.

 

The special counsel overseeing a criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump has issued subpoenas to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, according to a new report.

The subpoenas by special counsel Jack Smith, which demand the couple’s testimony before a grand jury, are related to his probe of Trump’s efforts to remain in the White House after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, The New York Times reported.

Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner served as senior White House advisors to the former president.

Both of them had testified to the select House committee that investigated the Capitol riot by a mob of Trump supporters whipped up into anger by the former president’s false claims of losing to Biden due to ballot fraud.

Smith previously issued a subpoena to former Vice President Mike Pence, who has said he will oppose the demand for his testimony.

And Smith reportedly subpoenaed Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows in the same probe.

The special counsel’s spokesmen declined to comment on the Times report. Attorneys for Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

 

So we've got the gang back together here, Meadows, Pence, and now Jared and Ivanka.  Needless to say some six years plus since Trump crapped himself into an Oval Office chair, the fact we're still back at the subpoena stage (and all parties are fighting these still, particularly Pence) doesn't fill me with confidence.

Regardless, Merrick Garland has to get this right, or the country is lost. Period.

Last Call For Trans-Specific Railroading

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Kentucky is about to quickly join several other red states in making trans kids illegal, and criminalizing anyone who "assists in physical or social transition" in any way with felony charges, loss of license, loss of state funding, and worse.

 

A sweeping new piece of anti-transgender legislation is being fast-tracked through Kentucky’s legislature, quickly being assigned to a committee and racking up 20 co-sponsors after its Tuesday filing.

Under House Bill 470, gender transition services for trans kids would be virtually barred statewide. “Gender transition” is broadly defined in the bill, applying to any service meant to “(assist) a person with a gender transition.” This would include things to help youth transition socially like using the student's correct pronouns or new name.

Physical and mental health care providers found to have helped provide transition-related services, which are backed by major medical organizations, to those under 18 would lose their licenses. If those providers work at a place receiving public money, the funding would be pulled.

Health care providers would be required to report providing any type of gender-affirming care to someone under the age of 18 within 30 days. If they don't, they could face criminal charges. They also would be liable should someone sue over services they provide, while providers who refuse to provide such services would be protected against legal, professional licensing and disciplinary pursuits.

In school, educators would be required to out trans and non-binary kids to their parents if they ask for a new name or pronouns, change their gender expression or there is an “inconsistency” between the sex or gender they were born as and how they feel.

Anyone under 18 could no longer legally change their name if the change appears tied to a “social or physical gender transition.” Documents like birth certificates also couldn’t be amended.

The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, says it would take effect in January 2024 so any minors currently using puberty blockers would have time for the appropriate medication tapering.

 

We're making being a trans kid in this state 100% illegal and if anyone doesn't report a soon-to-be illegal trans kid to the authorities, they'll go to jail. The bill essentially classifies medical or social transition as felony child abuse and makes failure to report it a crime as well.

Here's the most insidious part:

 

Decker’s bill is dubbed the “Do No Harm Act,” although several trans individuals and their allies have testified already this session that even small acts of affirming trans students’ identities, like using the correct pronouns, are shown to reduce the chances that student will consider suicide.

 

These bastards are going to run this bill through in a matter of days and override a Beshear veto easily even if he does veto it. I'm hoping the bill can be tied up by the Kentucky courts, but I expect it will become law by next year.

 

And then the state will begin hunting down trans kids. "Do No Harm" act my ass. This will get trans kids killed in KY and they damn well know it, because that's the point of the bill. Make a group illegal to exist and they either flee, die, or end up in jail.

Won't stop there, of course...

Orange Meltdown, Peach State Edition

The foreperson in Fulton County, Georgia's special grand jury investigating Trump's election fraud went to NBC and all but told the world that yes, the jury recommended indictments galore for Team Trump.

A special grand jury that investigated election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia recommended indictments for multiple people on a range of charges in its final report, most of which remains sealed, the forewoman of the jury said on Tuesday.

“It is not a short list,” the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said in an interview.

Ms. Kohrs, 30, declined to name the people recommended for indictment, since the judge handling the case decided to keep those details secret when he made public a few sections of the report last week. But seven sections that are still under wraps deal with indictment recommendations, Ms. Kohrs said.

Special grand juries in Georgia do not have indictment powers. Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., has led the investigation and will decide what charges to bring before a regular grand jury.

Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs would not answer directly but said: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.” In the slim portions of the report that were released last week, the jurors said they saw possible evidence of perjury by “one or more” witnesses who testified before them.

“It is not going to be some giant plot twist,” she added. “You probably have a fair idea of what may be in there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.”

The investigation in Atlanta has been seen as one of the most significant legal threats to Mr. Trump as he begins another run for the presidency. In November, the Justice Department named a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee two Trump-related criminal investigations. And last month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office began presenting evidence to a grand jury on whether Mr. Trump paid hush money to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges against the former president in the coming months.

A focal point of the Atlanta inquiry is a call that Mr. Trump made on Jan. 2, 2021, to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in which he pressed Mr. Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to recalculate the results and “find” 11,780 votes, or enough to overturn his loss in the state.

Yeah, the special grand jury recommended charges for Trump, I'm convinced of that. Whether DA Willis makes those charges, well, that's up to her and a criminal grand jury, just like it would be for any other criminal case in Fulton County.

Willis wouldn't have waited too long on empaneling that criminal grand jury, if it's not already meeting, it soon will be.

And then we'll see if Willis, Georgia, and America are ready for this fight.

Another Supreme Disappointment, Con't

As true to its nature, the Roberts Court refused to hear a challenge to Mississippi's racially motivated gerrymander of US House districts, as Republicans in the state eliminated one of the state's two majority Black districts completely last year, and the Supreme Court will simply let that stand.

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear Buck v. Reeves, a case alleging that the state’s congressional maps are racially gerrymandered. The decision affirms that Mississippi is no longer required to get federal preclearance for its congressional maps.

In 2002, a three-judge panel ordered Mississippi to use court-drawn congressional maps “in accordance with the procedures in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” However, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority struck down Section 5, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying at the time that “things have changed in the South.”

Mississippi is a 38% Black state with four congressional districts; one is majority Black and currently represented by a Black Democrat, U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, while the other three are majority white and represented by white Republicans.

District 1 is 65.8% white and 28% Black; District 2 is 30.2% white and 65.9% Black; District 3 is 58.7% white and 35.6% Black; District 4 is 68.7% white and 23.4% Black.

Despite being the state with the largest Black population per capita, Mississippi has only sent two Black representatives to Congress since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War: Thompson and his predecessor, former U.S. House Rep. Mike Espy. The state has not elected a Black U.S. senator or any other statewide official since Reconstruction.

The lower court's decision that there was no case because of the death of VRA Section 5 means that the rest of the Voting Rights Act is essentially dead as well. States can gerrymander districts down to individual streets in order to assure they can have as many districts favoring one party as they want, even if it means deliberately diluting and disenfranchising Black votes and voters.

This court, led by Chief Justice Roberts, will never allow the VRA to be enforced because racism "no longer exists".

Vote while you still can in red states, folks. 

Last Call For Going Off The Rails, Con't

The massive chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio due to a Norfolk Southern train derailment has brought all sorts of ire from folks quick to blame Biden for every damn thing when Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao rolled back train braking safety regulations and Republicans like Marco Rubio demanded that the regs be further rolled back in October 2021, but now the EPA has stepped in to make things right.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping enforcement action against Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, compelling the rail company to conduct and pay for cleanup actions associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

“The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in remarks prepared for a news conference in East Palestine. “Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community.”

If the company fails to complete any of the actions ordered by the EPA, the agency will “immediately” conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost. The order will require the company to identify and clean contaminated soil and water; pay any EPA costs, including reimbursing the agency for cleaning services that it will offer to residents and businesses; and participate in public meetings at EPA’s request and post information on-line.

The rail company already faces multiple class-action suits from members of the East Palestine community over the incident, which forced residents within roughly a mile radius to evacuate their homes.

 

Now, how quickly will Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine find a federal judge friendly enough to block this order, saying the Environmental Protection Agency has no authority to actually protect the environment?

We're going to find out in short order.

The View From Providence

Rhode Island Democratic Congressman David Cicilline is resigning later this year to head the state's largest non-profit organization.

 

US Representative David Cicilline plans to resign from Congress later this year to become president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, his office announced.

The announcement Tuesday is sure to send shockwaves through Rhode Island’s political establishment, setting up an off-year special election for the First Congressional District seat that most political observers believed the 61-year-old Democrat could have held for the rest of his life.

Over the course of 28 years, Cicilline has held elected office as a Rhode Island state representative, mayor of Providence, and member of Congress.

During a special meeting on Tuesday morning, the foundation’s board of directors voted to hire Cicilline following a months-long national search to replace outgoing president and CEO Neil Steinberg. The foundation is Rhode Island’s largest philanthropic organization, with a endowment of more than $1.3 billion.

“For more than a decade, the people of Rhode Island entrusted me with a sacred duty to represent them in Congress, and it is a responsibility I put my heart and soul into every day to make life better for the residents and families of our state,” Cicilline said. “The chance to lead the Rhode Island Foundation was unexpected, but it is an extraordinary opportunity to have an even more direct and meaningful impact on the lives of residents of our state. The same energy and commitment I brought to elected office I will now bring as CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, advancing their mission to ensure all Rhode Islanders can achieve economic security, access quality, affordable healthcare, and attain the education and training that will set them on a path to prosperity.”

 

Cicilline is expected to bow out at the end of May, setting up a special election later this year that could be a doozy. We'll see who comes out of it.

 

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions™, Con't

 Steve Benen at Maddowblog:

 

Despite her role, Marjorie Taylor Greene backs ‘national divorce’

As Marjorie Taylor Greene endorses the dissolution of the United States, the question is whether House GOP leaders will bother to care.

 

Short answer, no.

 

That’s not a rhetorical question. GOP leaders should let the public know whether they’re comfortable with such a dynamic — and what they’re prepared to do in response if they’re not comfortable with such a dynamic.

Indeed, that’s ultimately what matters most in response to so many of the controversies Greene creates. Her extremism is routine to the point that’s become background noise. Basic American patriotism generally prevents elected officials from endorsing the dissolution of the United States, but we’ve reached the point in our collective history at which members of Congress can publish such messages — which would’ve sparked a genuine scandal in the not-too-distant past — and much of the political world shrugs, seeing it as somehow routine.

 

Long answer: It's routine because they are the party of insurrection. Sending MTG to prison would be the right things to do, but doing the right thing is hard, especially if you're an entire country.

This has been another edition of In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions™.

Last Call For Ukraine On The Membrane, Con't

President Biden's surprise trip to Ukraine's front lines, accompanying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to announce in person that the US and EU will continue "unwavering support" for the government in Kyiv and the people of Ukraine seems like one of those fateful moments that will eventually be an answer on a history test someday.

 

Mr. Biden arrived early Monday morning to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky after a 10-hour overnight train ride through Ukraine, and the two stepped out into the streets of Kyiv even as an air-raid siren sounded, a dramatic moment that underscored the investment the United States has made in Ukraine’s independence.

“One year later, Kyiv stands,” Mr. Biden declared at Mr. Zelensky’s side in Mariinsky Palace, the gilded ceremonial home of the Ukrainian president. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.”

“Thank you so much for coming, Mr. President, at a huge moment for Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said.

In Kyiv for just five hours, Mr. Biden promised to release another $500 million in military aid in coming days, mentioning artillery ammunition, Javelin missiles and Howitzers, but he did not talk about the advanced arms that Ukraine has sought. Mr. Zelensky told reporters that he and the American president had spoken about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine, even though it wasn’t supplied before.”

Mr. Biden joined Mr. Zelensky for a visit to St. Michael’s monastery in downtown Kyiv, where the sun glittered off the golden domes as the air-raid alarm wailed. Trailing two soldiers bearing a wreath, the two leaders walked along the Wall of Remembrance, with portraits of more than 4,500 soldiers who have died since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and first fomented a rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

The air-raid alarm had stopped by the time Mr. Biden got back into his motorcade and departed the monastery, and alarms sound almost daily in Kyiv, but the blare of the siren added to the bristling tension of the moment. Ukrainian officials have been warning that Russia plans a large-scale missile bombardment timed to the anniversary of the war on Friday.

 

All evidence points toward Russia's "major offensive" to break Kyiv will get under way this week as the anniversary of Russia's formal "special military operation" approaches, and just as Biden announced support for Ukraine, China now has a fateful decision of its own to make when it comes to backing Moscow as Beijing's new top diplomat heads to Moscow.

Wang Yi – who was promoted as Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy adviser last month – is due to arrive in Moscow this week as part of his eight-day Europe tour, a trip that brings into focus China’s attempted diplomatic balancing act since Russia tanks rolled into Ukraine a year ago.

The optics of the two trips – taking place just days before the one-year anniversary of the brutal war on Friday – underscores the sharpening of geopolitical fault lines between the world’s two superpowers.

While relations between the US and China continue to plummet – most recently due to the fallout from a suspected Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace, China and Russia are as close as ever since their leaders declared a “no-limits” friendship a year ago – partly driven by their shared animosity toward the United States.

And as the US and its allies reaffirm their support for Ukraine and stepped up military aid, Beijing’s deepening partnership with Moscow has raised alarms in Western capitals – despite China’s public charm offensive in Europe to present itself as a negotiator of peace.

At the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Wang addressed a room of European officials as “dear friends” and touted China’s commitment to peace, while apparently attempting to drive a wedge between Europe and the US.

“We do not add fuel to the fire, and we’re against reaping benefits from this crisis,” Wang said in a thinly veiled dig at the US, echoing the propaganda messaging that regularly made China’s nightly prime-time news program – that the US is intentionally prolonging the war because its arms manufacturers are earning fat profits from weapon sales.

“Some forces might not want to see peace talks to materialize. They don’t care about the life and death of Ukrainians, nor the harm on Europe. They might have strategic goals larger than Ukraine itself. This warfare must not continue,” Wang said.

 

China doesn't want open military conflict, but it does want Taiwan back and has all but said as much. Some sort of joint operation between Putin and President Xi to get both Ukraine and Taiwan back is one of those Really Bad Scenarios™ that isn't out of the realm of possibility, either.

Things get...very complex from there. Would Biden also pledge "unwavering support" for Taipei and commit forces to defend Taiwan, and would it matter as far as keeping China out?

We'll see. Again, it seems like this is one of those moments where the history of the planet revolves around. Putin running out of troops and materiel and being forced to surrender could happen, or China and the rest of the BRICS+ nations could also pledge support. If the Saudis and Emirates jump in on Russia's side, as they have threatened to do on a number of occasions in the last several months, all bets are off. 

I'm glad Biden is in charge here instead of Trump, though. today proved that.

A Supreme Sanction On Social Speech

The Roberts court will hear a case this week that could effectively put an end to internet speech, removing legal protections and making tech giants liable for online speech, meaning they'd be sued out of existence. It would be an end to social media and the internet as we know it, and probably this blog.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in Gonzalez vs. Google, a lawsuit that argues tech companies should be legally liable for harmful content that their algorithms promote. The Gonzalez family contends that by recommending ISIS-related content, Google’s YouTube acted as a recruiting platform for the group in violation of U.S. laws against aiding and abetting terrorists.

At stake is Section 230, a provision written in 1996, years before the founding of Google and most modern tech giants, but one that courts have found shields them from culpability over the posts, photos and videos that people share on their services.

Google argues that Section 230 protects it from legal responsibility for the videos that its recommendation algorithms surface, and that such immunity is essential to tech companies’ ability to provide useful and safe content to their users.

The Gonzalez family’s lawyers say that applying Section 230 to algorithmic recommendations incentivizes promoting harmful content, and that it denies victims an opportunity to seek redress when they can show those recommendations caused injuries or even death.

The last surviving part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which provides companies legal cover to host others' content, could be coming to an end. (Video: Jonathan Baran/The Washington Post)

The resulting battle has emerged as a political lighting rod because of its potential implications for the future of online speech. Recommendation algorithms underlie almost every interaction people have online, from innocuous song suggestions on Spotify to more nefarious prompts to join groups about conspiracy theories on Facebook.

Section 230 is “a shield that nobody was able to break,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the president and founder of Shurat HaDin, an Israeli law center that specializes in suing companies that aid terrorists, and one of the lawyers representing the Gonzalez family, said in an interview. “It gave the social media companies the belief that they’re untouchable.”

YouTube parent company Google has successfully quashed the Gonzalez family lawsuit in lower courts, arguing that Section 230 protects the company when it surfaces a video in the “Up Next” queue on YouTube, or when it ranks one link above another in search results.

But these wins have come over the objections of some prominent judges who say lower courts have read Section 230’s protections too broadly. “The Supreme Court should take up the proper interpretation of Section 230 and bring its wisdom and learning to bear on this complex and difficult topic,” wrote Judge Ronald M. Gould of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Google general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado said the Supreme Court’s review risks opening up the entire tech industry to a new onslaught of lawsuits, which could make it too costly for some small businesses and websites to operate. “It goes beyond just Google,” DeLaine Prado said. “It really does impact the notion of American innovation.”

The case comes amid growing concern that the laws that govern the internet — many forged years before the invention of social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or TikTok — are ill equipped to oversee the modern web. Politicians from both parties are clamoring to introduce new digital rules after the U.S. government has taken a largely laissez-faire approach to tech regulation over the last three decades. But efforts to craft new laws have stalled in Congress, pushing courts and state legislatures to take up the mantle.

Now, the Supreme Court is slated to play an increasingly central role. After hearing the Google case on Tuesday, the justices on Wednesday will take up Twitter v. Taamneh, another case brought by the family of a terrorist attack victim alleging social media companies are responsible for allowing the Islamic State to use their platforms.

 

Without Section 230 protections, the internet goes away.  Any social media site would shut down for good. There's no possible way all the content on the internet can be policed, and if it could be, we'd have draconian filters like China as a result. Either way, much of the net as we know it would cease.

Leaving new regulations up to Congress when one party wants no rules at all is impossible. But leaving the entire internet to the six conservatives on the Roberts Court is equally awful.

Maybe the Court sides with Google, but if you're expecting some sort of Solomonic ruling that will protect the internet and allow for real regulation of the bastards on social media, well...this is the Roberts Court we're talking about...

The Circus Clowns On

Michigan Republicans, blaming Trump for their staggering losses in November, have elected a new state GOP chair that makes Trump look sane.

Kristina Karamo, who refused to concede her 14-point loss for secretary of state in 2022, beat former attorney general candidate Matt DePerno, who had Trump’s endorsement, in three rounds of contentious voting. The chaotic 11-hour convention, featuring a rowdy standoff over voting procedures and 10 candidates who all ran under a pro-Trump banner, left no doubt that the bulk of the party’s activists in this key battleground state remain firmly committed to election denial and showed no interest in moderating their message to appeal to the political center.

“Conceding to a fraudulent person is agreeing with the fraud, which I will not do,” Karamo said to cheers in her campaign speech on Saturday.

The outcome also dealt a tactical defeat to Trump, even though all the candidates competed for aligning themselves with him. Many delegates said they discounted or even resented Trump’s involvement in the race, especially after a midterm cycle that saw widespread wrangling over his down-ballot endorsements in the state.

“We love Donald Trump, but he don’t live here,” said Mark Forton, another candidate for chair who endorsed Karamo.

In a Thursday speech to a right-wing “patriot” group in nearby Charlotte, Karamo argued that Christianity belonged at the core of American politics, called evolution “one of the biggest frauds ever perpetuated on society,” and asserted the existence of demons.

“When we start talking about the spiritual reality of the demonic forces, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy, we can’t go there,’” Karamo said. “No. It’s like, did you read the Bible? Didn’t Jesus perform exorcisms? … Scriptures are clear. And so if we’re not operating as though the spirit realities of the world exist, we’re going to fail every time.”

In 2022, Democrats swept statewide races in Michigan and won control of both legislative chambers, achieving full statewide control for the first time since the 1980s. In 2024, the state is poised to host early primary contests and be a competitive presidential and Senate battleground.

“Do I think it destroyed the state party? For sure,” Christine Barnes, an unsuccessful state House candidate who skipped this year’s convention, said of Trump’s interventions. “And the party is a hot mess right now.”

The outcome here Saturday underscores the stark reality confronting Republicans across the country: Months after general election voters across the country rejected extreme, election-denying candidates such as Karamo, DePerno and former Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, many party activists remain enthralled by them. Some Republicans have voiced concern that this trend could set the party back at the ballot box in future races.

Lake, who has yet to concede defeat in Arizona and has waged an unsuccessful legal fight to challenge the results of her 2022 race, has been traveling the country promoting false election claims, as she weighs a run for U.S. Senate in 2024. And Trump, in his third run for president, continues to promote false claims about the 2020 election.

Trump held a tele-rally for DePerno on Monday, calling him a “defender of election integrity.” DePerno rose to prominence as a lawyer chasing conspiracy theories in Michigan’s 2020 election; a Republican state Senate report faulted him for spreading misinformation, and he came under state investigation for allegedly tampering with voting machines.

But some delegates said they grew to doubt DePerno because, unlike Karamo, he conceded his loss in November.

“Matt ran out on us; he didn’t fight for us,” said Mark DeYoung, a delegate from Harrison, Mich., and chairman of the Clare County GOP.

 

Observations:

 

1. Donald Trump is a loser. He knows full well that if the Not Trump vote can decide on a single candidate in 2024, he's done. He'll do everything he can to prevent that.
2. The Republican party is the party of white supremacist male "Christian" theocracy. Anyone who doesn't fit the bill, even Kristina Karamo, will be disposed of as soon as possible even if they win now, and the rest will be made expendable as well.
   
3. None of this is a dealbreaker for people still in the GOP. If you're still supporting them, you're enabling the very madness, bigotry, and hatred you supposedly don't believe in. You get to live with that cowardice. Unfortunately the rest of us fighting it have to live with your enabling too. That makes you the enemy as well, and we'll fight you.
4. At some point these assholes have to pay the cost of the tickets they bought America, or they're going to be running the place and the rest of us will be serving them for the rest of our lives.