I listen to three podcasts Allison Gill does. She is smart, funny, and has a great grasp of politics and the law. But her story here in this short interview shows the incredible harm of the Republicans taking away the right of full body autonomy for healthcare and abortion from women. She was drugged and raped as a young service member. She became pregnant with the rapist child. Her command told her if she reported the rape by a married man, she would be the one charged and punished, not him. There was no plan B or pills to end the pregnancy back then. She was looking at being a single woman in the military trying to carry a rapist baby to term and give birth, how could she do her job, would she be discharged? Thankfully, she was in a place where there was a Planned Parenthood, and she could get an abortion. She doesn’t complain about this but I damn sure will, she had to pay for it herself. Drugged, raped, unwanted pregnancy, and still she had to come up with the money to have the abortion while the married rapist faced no penalty for his actions. Damn it people this is the world the Republicans, at the urging of the hyper religious, are dragging us back to. Where men can force themselves on women, make them pregnant, leave them with the life destroying problem, and walk away happy to have used a woman’s body to have sex and cum in. I have been raped. As a child repeatedly. As an adult three times. The only saving grace is that I cannot get pregnant. I never faced that issue. This beyond me how any decent people can be OK with this. I said before these anti-abortion rights people have an image in their minds of a year old bouncing baby or a toddler that is being aborted. But it is not. In most cases it is a clump of cells, it is something smaller than a gold ball. No matter what trimester it has no consciousness, never drew a breath, never had a dream of its future, never desired anything in life, never experienced anything, yet Republicans and the rabid right want to make that thing more important than a woman that has done all of those. I just don’t understand. Hugs
I want to point out the shortage of baby formula is because of deregulation and the defunding / lack of personnel of the FDA that was done under the tRump administration. The restricting of imports of formula was done to increase profit. The company that was shut down for killing babies with contaminated product tried to hide the contamination from the FDA so they could make more profit. Yet they are championed and rewarded by the elected Republicans in congress. Also those same elected Republicans voted this week against funding so the FDA can find and fix problems like the contaminated formula that killed babies. Those same Republicans voted against ways to increase the amount of safe formula in the country because they don’t care about the hungry babies, they care about politics and want to hurt Joe Biden and the Democrats. It is a game to them, and it is people’s lives to the Democrats. Yet the Republicans are winning with a rabid base willing to do violence because of Republican lies. Hugs
The “party of life” is so mad that certain babies aren’t starving that they’re casually calling people pedophiles.
Rep. Elise Stefanik with Donald TrumpPhoto: Office of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
One of the top Republicans in Congress is calling Democrats “pedo grifters” because immigrant detention centers have baby formula.
House Republican Conference chairperson Elise Stefanik – the third-highest member of House GOP leadership – said that “pedo grifters” are sending food to immigrant babies as the right continues to use baseless accusations of pedophilia as insults against pretty much anyone who disagrees with them.
“The White House, House Dems, & usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present ANY PLAN or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border,” she wrote. “Joe Biden has NO PLAN.”
Stefanik’s casual use of the word “pedo” shows just how mundane it has become for rightwingers to call anyone they disagree with a pedophile.
For years, the rightwing QAnon conspiracy theory has claimed that there is a secret cabal of pedophiles operating a Satanic international child sex ring led by Hollywood celebrities and Democratic elites. Effectively, the QAnon conspiracy theory allowed believers an intellectual shortcut: instead of trying to understand why people would disagree with their policy preferences – a process that requires listening to others and the ability to understand multiple ideas at once – they could just accuse anyone who disagreed with them of being a Satanic pedophile, and who really cares why Satanic pedophiles believe what they believe?
The casualization of accusing political opponents of pedophilia heightened over the last couple of months as conservatives started referring to LGBTQ people – especially teachers – as well as anyone who supports LGBTQ equality as pedophiles and groomers. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) accused Tyra Banks of grooming children because she produced a documentary about teen drag queens. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) press secretary accused anyone who opposes the Don’t Say Gay bill of being a groomer or supporting grooming.
Chaya Raichik of the anti-LGBTQ Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” regularly accuses LGBTQ teachers of “grooming” even though she has no evidence of sexual abuse occurring. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said it was grooming for a science camp to have non-binary counselors, and conservatives even called the anti-suicide organization The Trevor Project “a grooming organization.”
While Stefanik may have been saying that those who want babies in detention centers fed so that they can later be sexually abused, it’s more likely that she does not have any ability to engage her political opponents other than to accuse them of pedophilia. Actually presenting a plan for what to do about baby formula shortages in the U.S. – and then arguing why that plan is better than the Biden administration’s plan – is a lot harder than just calling people pedophiles.
And the baby formula shortage is real. Currently, 40% of formula is out of stock in the U.S., which has led parents to stockpile formula, exacerbating the shortage. The shortage follows the recall of a major formula producer’s products because deadly bacteria was found in a factory, the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on supply chains, and restrictive trade policies around formula.
Stefanik was echoing rightwing complaints that immigrants forced to live in processing centers near the U.S.-Mexico border.
“What is infuriating to me is that this is another example of the ‘America Last’ agenda the Biden administration continues to perpetuate,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) said last week, not presenting any alternative to immigrant access to formula other than letting babies in processing centers starve.
President Joe Biden announced a plan to address the crisis last week that included making it easier to use WIC benefits to buy formula of different sizes and types, increasing imports of formula, and cracking down on price gouging.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the House will soon vote on a bill to grant emergency authority to WIC to address supply chain disruptions and relax certain regulations not related to the safety of baby formula.
In a later statement Stefanik’s office said that “pedo grifters” was referring to the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans and former Republicans who advocated against the reelection of Donald Trump. They are not involved in the baby formula shortage and they aren’t in charge of presenting a plan to end the baby formula shortage, so it’s unclear how that statement explains what she said.
Do you notice a theme to what I have been posting. All tRump’s campaign people were demanding changes to the Republican platform as they lobbied for foreign countries. From the top down they were working for other countries. And taking large sums of money to do it. Think of tRump’s first National Security Director Michael Flynn. He was working for Turkey and breaking US laws. tRump’s son in law went to the Russian embassy and asked their help setting up a private unmonitored back channel to Russia. Many people have forgotten that. tRump and crew were not working for the US and now the majority of Republicans are not either. Hugs
The Department of Justice today filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to compel Stephen A. Wynn, a U.S. businessperson and hotelier who previously served as the CEO of Wynn Resorts, to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as the agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and a senior official of the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS). Wynn was advised to register as an agent by the department but declined to do so.
“The filing of this suit – the first affirmative civil lawsuit under FARA in more than three decades – demonstrates the department’s commitment to ensuring transparency in our democratic system,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Where a foreign government uses an American as its agent to influence policy decisions in the United States, FARA gives the American people a right to know.”
According to the complaint, from at least June 2017 through at least August 2017, Wynn contacted the then-President and members of his administration to convey the PRC’s request to cancel the visa or otherwise remove from the United States a Chinese businessperson who left China in 2014, was later charged with corruption by the PRC and sought political asylum in the United States.
Wynn engaged in these efforts at the request of Sun Lijun, then-Vice Minister of the MPS. Wynn conveyed the request directly to the then-President over dinner and by phone, and he had multiple discussions with the then-President and senior officials at the White House and National Security Council about organizing a meeting with Sun and other PRC government officials.
During the time that he engaged in this conduct, Wynn’s company owned and operated casinos in Macau, a special administrative region in the PRC. The department alleges that Wynn acted at the request of the PRC out of a desire to protect his business interests in Macau.
Wynn resigned as RNC finance chair in 2018 after multiple female employees came forward with accusations of sexual harassment. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel demanded “due process” for Wynn before returning his personal donations. She never did.
BREAKING: The DOJ is suing Steve Wynn to get him to register as a foreign agent, claiming that he lobbied Trump on behalf of China! https://t.co/QmUA3tjYBq
The feds are now looking into how Trump’s billionaire friend Tom Barrack successfully stripped mentions of 9/11 in the 2016 GOP platform to please the Saudis.
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
Michael Kovac/Getty
Listen to article6 minutes
The Justice Department has updated its indictment of former President Donald Trump’s billionaire buddy Thomas Barrack, documenting how he quietly tweaked the GOP platform at the 2016 Republican National Convention to avoid mentioning the Saudi royal family’s connection to the 9/11 hijackers.
On Monday, the DOJ replaced its original 46-page charging document with an expanded 55-page superseding indictment that more closely details how the financier allegedly exploited his proximity to Trump to make secret deals with the United Arab Emirates.
In the latest version of the indictment, federal prosecutors documented the role Barrack played at the run-up to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. As a congressional investigation has since uncovered, Barrack had already allowed the Saudis and Emiratis to edit a major Trump campaign speech about energy, in which he made a pledge to “work with our Gulf allies.” Then, as Barrack’s relationship to the Emiratis got tighter, the meddling increased.
Seven weeks before the Republican convention, according to the revised indictment, someone only referred to as “Person-1” emailed Barrack about developing the GOP talking points at the convention. (The news site Middle East Eye, which initially broke news about the existence of these emails has surmised that this person was criminal political strategist Paul Manafort.)
“We need to talk about language for me to put in [the national political party] platform at national convention. Can be much more expansive than what we did in speech,” this person wrote to Barrack, adding a notable caveat that the “platform language” would be “based on what you hear from your friends.”
But just a week before the start of the GOP convention, the draft platform was deemed too problematic by “Person-1.”
Trump had previously promised to release the infamous 28 pages missing from a House and Senate joint intelligence report documenting the plane hijackers’ connections to the Saudi government and royal family—classified details that victims, activists, and journalists had long sought to make public. But on July 13 that year, this person wrote to Barrack that Republicans would have to back down from mentioning that.
This person wrote to Barrack that any mention “that was anti the Saudi Royal Family was removed from the platform.”
According to federal investigators, who have acquired suspects’ communications, Barrack then turned around and forwarded that email to UAE businessman Rashid Al-Malik. (The DOJ has also indicted Al-Malik, who is accused of passing along information to UAE government spies.)
In his note to his UAE contact, Barrack allegedly wrote that the email was “very confidential but you can share with HH. Please do not circulate any further since it is very sensitive.”
According to the feds, Al-Malik then forwarded that email to an unnamed Emirati official. But Barrack is also accused of passing that information along to a yet another unnamed Emirati official whom other journalists have identified at UAE ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba. Barrack allegedly told him the information was “really confidential but important.”
Otaiba still retains that post in Washington, D.C. The Emirati embassy did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The long-awaited missing 28 pages were eventually released—albeit with redactions—by President Barack Obama that very summer. The New York Times called it a “frustrating time capsule” whose importance grew over the years, but which ultimately showed that the tenuous connections between the 9/11 terrorists and Saudi leadership did not prove to be the vast conspiracy many suspected.
Brian McGlinchey, an independent journalist in San Antonio, Texas, who played a pivotal role in aggressively pushing for their release, told The Daily Beast that he welcomes the DOJ’s new focus on Barrack’s alleged role in having the GOP avoid the subject.
“It underscores the hypocrisy of the Trump camp, because at that time, there was an active presidential campaign going on,” he said. “You’ve got the candidate out front raising deep suspicions about Saudi involvement, at the same time you have these back channel maneuvers at the Republican convention to help the Saudis avoid embarrassment.”
When reached for comment, the Republican National Committee told The Daily Beast it was unaware of what transpired.
“The DOJ has not reached out to the RNC on this subject, nor do we have knowledge of this issue. Additionally, current RNC leadership was not involved with the 2016 platform,” said Emma Vaughn, the group’s spokeswoman.
The DOJ on Monday also hit Barrack with two additional criminal charges of making “material false statements” for allegedly lying to the FBI during a June 20, 2019 interview. Although some of the allegations were lumped together in the original set of charges, the revised indictment is now charging him separately for allegedly lying about only having one phone when he actually had a dedicated line for secretly communicating with the Emiratis.
Barrack’s legal team declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing case, which is currently set for trial in the late summer.
The superseding indictment adds two new charges of making false statements to investigators to Thomas Barrack's, a longtime friend of former President Donald Trump and chair of his 2017 inaugural committee, 2021 indictment. https://t.co/x66wOLyhnn
Trump friend Thomas Barrack sought hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from the UAE while lobbying the Trump admin for the UAE, say prosecutors. By @annaschecter + @anblanxhttps://t.co/bSQ1lYuIMf
— NBC Investigations (@NBCInvestigates) May 17, 2022
President Biden signed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine just as Russia intensified its efforts to control the eastern part of the former Soviet state. CBS News foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab reports from Odesa, Ukraine.
Rep. Elise Stefanik with Donald TrumpPhoto: Office of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
