Republicans try to distract from the Trump and Santos debacle with a Biden nothingburger

 https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/republicans-trump-santos-biden-investigation-b2336567.html

But despite House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s proclamation that his committee “will not pursue witch hunts, or string the American people along for years with false promises of evidence that is beyond circumstantial evidence,” they failed to produce any hard evidence during the press conference, and many reporters seemed incredulous that the chairman would waste time with such flimsy evidence. In doing so, Mr Comer seemed to break one of the cardinal rules of politics, especially when feeding something to reporters: he over-promised and he under-delivered.

MTG Confirms Nearly ALL the GOP’s Biden Corruption Informants Are ‘Missing’

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-several-biden-corruption-informants-are-missing

The GOP has lost contact with nearly all of the “whistleblowers” in their ongoing investigation into Joe Biden, Marjorie Taylor Greene confirmed Monday. According to the Georgia Republican, most of their informants are missing in action—except for one. “That whistleblower is very safe,” Greene told Steve Bannon on his War Room podcast. “But he does fear for his life, and rightfully so.” While Greene claims to be in touch with that one witness, the same can’t be said for up to nine others.

GOP watches as Trump’s problems with suburban women go on display

 https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4002482-gop-fears-trumps-problems-with-suburban-women-will-only-get-worse/

Suburban women voters have also largely turned their backs on Republicans since the former president was elected in 2016. According to CBS News exit polling from 2018, 53 percent of suburban women voters said they voted for Democrats in 2018, up from 47 percent in 2014 and 51 percent in 2016. In 2020, Biden won 54 percent of suburban voters in general, according to the Pew Research Center. And in last year’s midterm elections, suburban voters, including women in this group, helped deliver major victories to Democrats in key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, with many of Trump’s endorsed candidates facing defeat. 

“I know Biden’s poll numbers are not great, but at the end of the day, when you’re really looking at whatever we watch in this campaign, if it is Donald Trump, it may not be a vote for Joe Biden, but a vote just to please make it stop with Donald Trump,” Walsh said. 

Prosecutor ends probe of FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation with harsh criticism, but no new charges

 https://apnews.com/article/durham-trump-russia-probe-7e84f94ca9cf7905cbc5eddc108575b3

A special prosecutor has ended his four-year investigation into possible FBI misconduct in its probe of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign with withering criticism of the bureau but a meager court record that fell far short of the former president’s prediction he would uncover the “crime of the century.”

"Crime of Century" probe ends without success

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/15/politics/john-durham-report-fbi-trump-released/index.html

The special counsel, however, did not recommend any new charges against individuals or “wholesale changes” about how the FBI handles politically charged investigations, despite strongly criticizing the agency’s behavior.

Durham’s findings that the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign should not have happened are at odds with a previous Justice Department inspector general investigation into the FBI’s Russia probe, which identified problems with the investigation but concluded in December 2019 there was sufficient justification to open the inquiry.

Trumps cancel nazi speaker

Eric Trump Threatens Lawsuit Against Rachel Maddow

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/eric-trump-threatens-lawsuit-against-rachel-maddow

Eric Trump is threatening to sue Rachel Maddow after the MSNBC host merely pointed out that he and his wife, Lara, are scheduled to speak at a Trump National Doral event in Miami this weekend—along with anti-semites. “I can’t really believe they are going ahead with it,” Maddow said during her Monday night show in between playing clips of Scott McKay and Charlie Ward, who are set to appear at the ReAwaken America tour. In response, Trump posted on Twitter Tuesday night that Maddow is “walking a fine line” because his family is actually “the most pro-Israel family in American political history,” citing in part how Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and their children are Jewish.

Gosh, how do the Trumps keep "accidentally" hanging out with Hitler fanboys?

 https://www.salon.com/2023/05/11/gosh-how-do-the-keep-accidentally-hanging-out-with-hitler-fanboys/

No doubt many will dismiss this characterization as an exaggeration, which is one way Trump gets away with this stuff. But no, the speakers for this ReAwaken America event, which was co-founded by former Trump aide and current QAnon celebrity Michael Flynn, really are that terrible. Podcaster Scott McKay told his audience last year, "Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today," and blamed Jews for 9/11. Right wing commentator Charlie Ward posted a Hitler speech with the caption "Hitler was warning us about the ruling class" of "Freemasonry, Judaism, Communism, Globalism, Race Wars, NWO, the Cabal & the Bankers."

Antisemitic speakers to skip Trump stop on right-wing roadshow tour

Trump’s 2020 re-hash puts DeSantis in a bind: Can he bring himself to say Trump lost?

 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/15/trump-2020-election-desantis-bind-00096852

But implicit in DeSantis’ argument that he is a more electable alternative to Trump is the idea that Trump actually lost.The fundamental problem for DeSantis — underscored even by blunter messaging from the super PAC supporting him — is that he can’t bring himself to say it.

“First question at first debate: Raise your hand if you think Trump won the 2020 election,” said Republican consultant Alex Conant, who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential race and is unaffiliated in the 2024 campaign. “If a candidate can’t dispose of a fake issue like who won the election, how can voters expect them to handle the real issues?”

A mother was raising her son in a city she loved. Then San Francisco changed and stole her boy

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/14/us/san-francisco-drugs-homeless-sidner-tws/index.html

San Francisco is still beautiful to her – with the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio and Fisherman’s Wharf, the Italian enclave of North Beach. But it has become scarier, and she feels some of the blame has to go to politicians whose job it is to clean up the streets.

“I’m liberal,” Tilghman said. “My politics have stayed the same and things have gone crazy around me.”

NUTRITION SCIENCE’S MOST PREPOSTEROUS RESULT

 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/ice-cream-bad-for-you-health-study/673487/

Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it.

‘You Don’t Actually Have Any Facts’: Even Fox Isn’t Buying GOP’s Claims About Biden’s Foreign Business Dealings

 https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/james-comer-fox-news-biden-foreign-business-dealings-1234733915/

Comer defended himself by arguing that Biden’s family members had taken steps to conceal the president’s involvement in his family’s financial dealings, but conceded that Republicans are in the “beginning stages” of the now five-year investigation and “still looking for more bank records that we believe will implicate Joe Biden’s active participation in this.” 

The real reasons stores such as Walmart and Starbucks are closing in big cities

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/12/business/stores-closing-cities-downtown-retail/index.html

 Nordstrom. Walmart. Whole Foods. Starbucks. CVS.

These big chains and others have closed stores in major US cities recently, raising alarm about the future of retail in some of the country’s most prominent downtowns and business districts.

Several forces are pushing chains out of some city centers: a glut of stores, people working from home, online shopping, exorbitant rents, crime and public safety concerns, and difficulty hiring workers.