I enjoy listening to this person talk on different subjects, because he is a person who uses reason and thinks things through without just relying on tropes or rote. This short talk is on the topic of the great replacement idea that Tucker loves so much and immigration. He talks about how it influences people to do horrible things to others. Hugs
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to make sure he has every advantage heading into his fall reelection. And that apparently includes taking what some Republicans have called “welfare for politicians.”
Take the money and run — DeSantis on Thursday filed all his campaign-related paperwork to qualify for reelection, and that included — surprise — a request to accept public matching funds. It’s a move that will probably result in the GOP governor receiving millions in added financial help. (DeSantis got $3.2 million in his initial campaign for governor.)
How does this happen? — Wait, you ask — how can someone who has raised in excess of $113 million so far (a figure that will go up even more today when May reports are filed) get taxpayer help? Well, because he can.
No, and Florida deserves him. One quarter of eligible voters sat out 2016 and 2018 handing him a razor thin margin of victory and TFG won the state by 125K votes. Florida had the power to to stop TFG in his tracks back in 2016 and chose not to.
As my mother would say, this is why we can’t have nice stuff.
A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from his sale of more than $2.7 million worth of various unregistered pesticides to numerous victims based on false representations that these products were registered pesticides with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and on EPA’s “List N: Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2” that EPA deemed to be effective against SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus).
Paul Andrecola, 63, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court to an information charging him with one count of knowingly distributing or selling an unregistered pesticide in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), one count of wire fraud and one count of presenting false claims to the United States.
“Andrecola not only cheated dozens of people out of millions of dollars, but also endangered the health of those who relied on his fraudulent virucidal products,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting such crimes to the fullest extent possible.”
Andrecola, who owns and operates three companies based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, manufactured various disinfectant products, including liquids and wipes, under the brand name “GCLEAN.”
GCLEAN products were unregistered pesticides under FIFRA and none of the products were on EPA’s “List N of Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2.”
Rather, Andrecola placed another company’s EPA Registration Numbers on his company’s products, and falsely marketed that his products were EPA-approved to kill Coronavirus by creating numerous false documents to support his claims.
The count of illegal sale of an unregistered pesticide carries a statutory maximum prison sentence of one year, and a fine of up to $25,000.
The charge of wire fraud is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and the count of false claims against the United States is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison.
Both the charges of wire fraud and false claims against the United States are each also subject to fines of the greater of $250,000, twice the gross profits to Andrecola, or twice the gross loss suffered by the victims, whichever is greatest.
As part of the plea agreement, the defendant agreed to forfeit more than $2.7 million of the proceeds from the sale of the illegal product and to make full restitution for all losses resulting from his commission of the charged crimes.
Sentencing is October 11th.
He made more than $2.7 million selling unregistered pesticides he claimed could kill COVID-19, officials say.https://t.co/TUVHRwSR2C
Why would so many people trust him? Watch the video. Production values and grandfatherly actor speaking slowly and confidently like they do on Fox News.
He looks like the Hollywood stereotype of a good doctor: older, white male, white facial hair, articulate and well dressed and well groomed. surrounded by orderly clutter and talks at a level that a scientific illiterate can understand. Then paraphrase the usual grifter tropes:
My moisturizer is the best, believe me. The government doesn’t want you to have this because the doctors will make more money if you stay sick. Then he goes on to demonstrate that it is a product that is non-flammable and safe for the kids and grandkids, which has nothing to do with anti-viral efficacy. Anti-bacterial vs. anti-viral. Same difference, amirite?
Voila! if you look like an expert and don’t talk down to people who think their horse sense is just as good as your fancy degree, then they feel respected if you don’t use big words and can use memorable parlor tricks that look very science-y so that you can look smart when you explain it to your even dumber friends. It’s made in New Jersey, the mecca of scientists. Princeton is located there!.
Journalist Abby Martin confronted the hypocrisy of Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the U.S.’s inaction on journalist violence in Israel and Saudi Arabia, our two closest allies in the Middle East. Martin highlighted how the U.S. postures as a bastion of free speech while simultaneously putting no political or economic pressure on our allies after the state-sanctioned murders of journalists Shireen Abu Akleh and Jamala Khashoggi. Cenk Uygur and Jayar Jackson discuss on The Young Turks.
“@AbbyMartin calls out hypocrisy of Sec Blinken: you lecture about press freedom but do nothing when Shireen Abu Akleh and Jamal Khashoggi, two journalists and US citizens, are murdered.
Why are you buying bullets for the worst abusers of journalists like Saudi Arabia & Israel?”
A pro-Herschel Walker political action committee called 34N22, run by failed GOP operative Stephen Lawson (AKA Little Stevie Lawson), was caught engaging in possible felony crimes by handing out gas vouchers to voters in their efforts to unseat Raphael Warnock. Ben Meiselas reports.
Republicans can not only not follow the election laws, but they are clearly OK with violating any laws or regulation to
Explosions shook the city of Kyiv on Sunday morning after Russia launched its first attack in the capital in over a month. CBS News foreign correspondent Chris Livesay joins CBS News’ Ali Bauman with more on the attack.
This state cannot adequately fund their schools now and just wasted billions on a border stunt that failed. But they will do anything other than talk about how easy it is to get a gun in their state to shoot school kids. Hugs
Patrick said he wants police in as many Texas schools as possible to have bulletproof shields before the fall. He’s asked other state leaders to move around money in the state budget to make it happen.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, center, has asked state officials to move $50 million in the state budget to provide bulletproof shields for school police officers before the start of classes in the fall. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on state leaders Friday to move around $50 million in the state budget to buy bulletproof shields for school police officers following a mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Uvalde where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.
“I am asking the Speaker of the House to join the Senate members of the Legislative Budget Board and me next week in a budget execution letter to move $50 million to either the Governor’s Office or Department of Public Safety (DPS) to begin buying these bulletproof shields as soon as possible so every member of school law enforcement has one,” Patrick said in a statement Friday afternoon. “This will begin the funding necessary to eventually provide bulletproof shields to all law enforcement.”
Patrick’s request would require the approval of House Speaker Dade Phelan and other House members of the state’s Legislative Budget Board. But because lawmakers have already appropriated the money for the two-year budget cycle, it would also require letters from the agencies where the money would be taken certifying that the transfer would not negatively impact their functions.
Patrick said he would send a draft letter Monday and asked Phelan to act quickly. Phelan’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State Republican leaders have already signed off on twosimilar transfers worth about $1 billion this year to send money to Gov. Greg Abbott’s costly border security initiative, Operation Lone Star, which was running out of funds. Patrick, who approved those transfers, said the same should be done to provide bulletproof shields to school police officers.
“We have used transfer authority this year to spend billions on the border. We can surely find this amount of money to better protect our kids,” Patrick said, adding that there are “several sources in the current budget that can be tapped to provide this funding.”
Patrick did not name those sources.
During the last of these budget transfers in April, DPS, one of the agencies that Patrick is suggesting should be given money to pay for the bulletproof shields, was forced to relinquish $160 million of its approved budget to keep Operation Lone Star going. Without that transfer, leaders for the Texas Military Department, which has assigned 10,000 service members to the mission, would have been unable to continue the operation.
Patrick said the state should start by providing bulletproof shields to all school police officers and then expand to all law enforcement officers. The state could experience supply-chain issues in obtaining the shields, but it should push to get “every quality shield we can find.”
“This straightforward solution can begin right away,” Patrick said. “If all responding law enforcement had bulletproof shields last week, lives may have been saved.”
Patrick’s plan continues the trend in the state’s Republican leadership of responding to mass shootings by pushing for more teachers to be allowed to use firearms in schools and funding school police. But the law enforcement response to the shooting has been roundly criticized after state and law enforcement officials gave inaccurate information in the initial aftermath of the shooting that has since been debunked.
Police responding to the shooting took more than an hour to engage the gunman who was inside a classroom shooting at children and teachers. The police chief for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, Pete Arredondo, determined police were dealing with a “barricaded suspect” and that the children were no longer in danger, state officials said. The leader of DPS later said it was the “wrong decision, period.”
Patrick said that if every police officer in the state had a bulletproof shield, “their ability to respond to an active shooter situation would be greatly enhanced.”
Texas lawmakers have responded in a similar manner in the past. After a gunman with a high-powered rifle ambushed and killed five Dallas police officers in July 2016, state lawmakers responded by allocating $25 million in the state budget for police agencies across the state to buy bullet-resistant vests that could withstand rifle ammunition.
Last session, after two DPS troopers were fatally shot through a windshield in their patrol car, lawmakers agreed to foot the bill to bulletproof windshields in DPS patrol cars, Patrick said.
This is a wonderful grand explanation of conservatism. Regressive. Well worth the read. After watching it then argue with me about it if you disagree. Hugs
Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke in favor of “Christian nationalism” during a recent social media broadcast, echoing some of the worst despots and dictators from history. Texas Paul sounds the alarm.
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Scottie's Playtime 