Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Al Jazeera hands ICC purported proof IDF ‘deliberately’ killed reporter Abu Akleh

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/al-jazeera-to-hand-icc-purported-proof-idf-deliberately-killed-reporter-abu-akleh/

Gantz has insisted that the assertion, also made by the Palestinian Authority, that Israel deliberately targeted Abu Akleh is a “blatant lie.” Gantz also said last month that the FBI investigation is unnecessary. Lapid criticized the US decision to investigate the incident, vowing not to allow IDF soldiers to be “interrogated by the FBI or by any foreign body or foreign country, no matter how friendly.”


Monday, December 5, 2022

Gop investigations of Democrats generally fail to uncover anything

 Remember Hillary's emails, the crime of the century the Russian Hoax, the Duram  investigation

the Republican investigation to connect hunter Biden to corruption of Joe Biden - all ended in failure

And yet that obsession is what still energizes the GOP and their future not the issues of crime inflation or the economy.


Two years, $7 million, 800 pages later, GOP Benghazi report lands with a thud

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/two-years-7-million-800-pages-later-gop-benghazi-report-lands-with-a-thud

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton loomed large in the House Republican probe of the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya in the Benghazi attack. Hauled before a GOP panel, she was grilled for eight hours. On Tuesday, an 800-page report landed and House Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-SC, denied the probe was ever about Clinton.

Why John Durham’s investigation has failed so spectacularly


For years, Team Trump insisted that the Russia scandal was pointless but John Durham’s investigation was real. Republicans had this entirely backward.

But the humiliation is not limited to the prosecutor. Every once in a while, Trump still blurts out Durham’s name, hoping the prosecutor might yet bolster some of the former president’s conspiracy theories. As regular readers may recall, the Republican has even suggested at times that Durham’s probe could serve as a possible vehicle for retaliating against his perceived enemies.illion, 800 pages later, GOP Benghazi report lands with a thud

Herschel Walker Takes Credit for Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka's 'Intelligence'

 https://www.newsweek.com/herschel-walker-donald-trump-jr-ivanka-trump-intelligence-viral-video-1764120

Avideo of Herschel Walker taking credit for Donald Trump's children's intelligence has resurfaced on social media.

The Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Georgia said that he spent time with Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. while they were growing up and was responsible for their intelligence.

Hate speech dramatically surges on Twitter following Elon Musk takeover, new research shows

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/02/tech/twitter-hate-speech/index.html

New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared last month that “hate speech impressions” had dramatically fallen on the platform since he took over.

“A safe space for hate is a hostile environment to most decent folks,” Ahmed added, “by means of comparison, who would want to sit in a cafe or pub where crazies are screaming expletives and bigotry, let alone have the chutzpah to claim that it was democratically-essential debate?”

Specifically, the Center for Countering Digital Hate said the daily use of the n-word under Musk is triple the 2022 average and the use of slurs against gay men and trans persons are up 58% and 62%, respectively.

And the Anti-Defamation League said in a separate report that its data shows “both an increase in antisemitic content on the platform and a decrease in the moderation of antisemitic posts.”


Elon Musk's 'hot take' on First Amendment reveals 'profound ignorance,' MSNBC anchor declares

 https://www.foxnews.com/media/elon-musks-hot-take-first-amendment-reveals-profound-ignorance-msnbc-anchor-declares

"If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?" Musk wrote in reference to emails indicating Twitter staff responded "handled" to requests for tweets to be reviewed for removal by the Biden campaign in 2020. 

"This is what we in the cable business like to call a hot take. It reveals Elon Musk’s profound ignorance of the First Amendment. The First Amendment regulates government contact. It does not regulate public actors like Twitter. And in Musk’s example, not only was the Biden campaign not part of the government, but the ultimate decision to actually agree to honor the request to came from a fundamentally was a private decision taken by private company. The Biden campaign is not the government," Velshi said.


Sunday, December 4, 2022

Top House Intel Republican condemns Trump’s calls to suspend Constitution over 2020 election

 https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/3761308-top-house-intel-republican-condemns-trumps-calls-to-suspend-constitution-over-2020-election/

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday condemned former President Trump’s suggestion to suspend the Constitution over unfounded claims of mass electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Turner if he condemned Trump’s post on Saturday calling for “the termination of all rules,” including those in the Constitution, over his election claims.

“Absolutely,” Turner responded. “And I believe, answering your question, that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.”

Denouncing antisemitism shouldn’t be hard; for some Republicans, it seems to be

 https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-12-02/antisemitism-trump-and-the-gop-essential-politics

Here’s the reality that ties the tongues of McCarthy, DeSantis and the like: Roughly 3 in 10 Republican voters still identify as “more a supporter of Donald Trump” than of the GOP.

Six years ago, after Trump won the Republican nomination, party leaders, with a few exceptions, decided they would overlook his bigoted statements, flagrant falsehoods and personal misconduct in order to maintain unity in the ranks. They re-upped that deal after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, closing ranks to save Trump from conviction on impeachment charges and ostracizing outspoken critics like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Now, as always happens with such bargains, the bill is coming due. This week has shown Republicans just how costly it may be to pay.

The GOP’s same-sex marriage evolution: A slow, choppy tidal shift

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/30/gop-same-sex-marriage-00071258

This summer, 47 House Republicans’ surprising support for the same-sex marriage bill spurred a sustained push from Tillis, Portman and Collins to take action — a veritable GOP tidal shift. As former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) put it on Tuesday: “Times change. And senators change.”

Georgia Republican lieutenant governor deems Herschel Walker 'one of the worst' candidates in GOP history

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgia-republican-lieutenant-governor-deems-herschel-walker-worst-candidates-gop-history

Georgia’s GOP lieutenant governor recently described U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker as "one of the worst Republican candidates in our party’s history." 

Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan explained to CBS News why he chose not to vote for Walker ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election, where the Republican challenger faces off against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. 

"This wasn’t the right brand for Republicanism, and I think Herschel Walker will probably go down as one of the worst Republican candidates in our party's history," Duncan said in the on-camera interview.  

GOP Rep. Pushes Back as Fox Hosts Slam Bipartisan Bill: 'America Needs It'

 https://www.newsweek.com/gop-rep-pushes-back-fox-hosts-slam-bipartisan-bill-america-needs-it-1764410

McDowell pressed the GOP lawmaker about his vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which she said was "fueling inflation."

"How are you not part of the problem, instead of being the solution?" McDowell asked.

Bacon responded that he believes the Republican Party should embrace infrastructure policy. Bartiromo, however, asked him about how much of the bill would actually be going to infrastructure. Former President Donald Trump has claimed only 11 percent of the funding goes toward "real infrastructure," but this claim was inaccurate.

Biden leveraged $1B in aid to Ukraine to oust corrupt prosecutor, not to help his son

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/21/fact-check-joe-biden-leveraged-ukraine-aid-oust-corrupt-prosecutor/5991434002/

While former Vice President Joe Biden oversaw foreign policy in Ukraine, his son Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, the largest gas company in the fledgling democracy.

Despite a recently concluded investigation by Senate Republicans that found no wrongdoing by the Bidens, claims to the contrary have continued to circulate on social media.

"VP Biden threatened to withhold 1 billion dollars from Ukraine to save his son's job," reads a meme posted to Facebook by Secure America Now. The meme has been shared more than 9,000 times since Oct. 18.

It's true that Joe Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to persuade Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in March 2016. But it wasn't because Shokin was investigating Burisma. It was because Shokin wasn't pursuing corruption among the country's politicians.


Lawrence: Appeals Court Tells Trump Something He Never Hears

Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/03/politics/trump-constitution-truth-social/index.html

Former President Donald Trump called for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election and reinstate him to power Saturday in a continuation of his election denialism and pushing of fringe conspiracy theories.

“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social and accused “Big Tech” of working closely with Democrats. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

Quit Underestimating President Biden

 https://www.gingrich360.com/2022/11/30/quit-underestimating-president-biden/

We dislike Biden so much, we pettily focus on his speaking difficulties, sometimes strange behavior, clear lapses of memory, and other personal flaws. Our aversion to him and his policies makes us underestimate him and the Democrats.

But remember: Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan both preferred to be underestimated. Both wanted people to think of them as pleasant – but not dangerous. They found being underestimated was a major asset. While people laughed at them, they were busy achieving their goals and getting their programs implemented.