Thank you personnelente for these facts and figures. If you want to see how badly Ukraine is hurting Russia please look at the chart / image at the link above. Can you believe this country that the maga want to give to stop funding and give to Russia actually took out a Russia submarine? This country that most people predicted would fall in three days to three weeks, stood up and drove Russia back and if they had gotten the military aid that maga republicans held up wouldn’t have lost so much ground recently. Hugs. Scottie
Category: Military
Proposed Texas GOP platform calls for the Bible in schools, electoral changes that would lock Democrats out of statewide office
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/25/texas-republican-party-convention-platform/
BY ROBERT DOWNEN AND RENZO DOWNEYCredit: Eli Hartman/The Texas TribuneRepublican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties.
Other proposed planks of the 50-page platform included proclamations that “abortion is not healthcare it is homicide”; that gender-transition treatment for children is “child abuse”; calls to reverse recent name changes to military bases and “publicly honor the southern heroes”; support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose “all pertinent information and knowledge” of UFOs.
The party hopes to finalize its platform on Wednesday, after Saturday’s votes on each proposal are tabulated.
Passed by delegates at the party’s biennial convention, the platform has traditionally been seen not as a definitive list of Republican stances, but a compromise document that represents the interests of the party’s various business, activist and social conservative factions. But in recent years — and amid a party civil war that’s pushed it further right — the platform has been increasingly used as a basis for censuring Republican officeholders who the party’s far right has attacked as insufficiently conservative, including Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-San Antonio.
As the party has drifted further right, its platform has done the same. In 2022, it called for a referendum on Texas secession; resistance to the “Great Reset,” a conspiracy theory that claims global elites are using environmental and social policies to enslave the world’s population; proclamations that homosexuality is an “abnormal lifestyle choice”; and a declaration that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.
Many of those planks were also included in this year’s platform, which was debated late into Friday night and presented for a vote Saturday afternoon.
One proposal asserts that illegal immigration is the “greatest threat to American security and sovereignty” and calls for the state and federal governments to devote all available resources to deporting undocumented immigrants.
Perhaps the most consequential plank calls for a constitutional amendment to require that candidates for statewide office carry a majority of Texas’ 254 counties to win an election, a model similar to the U.S. electoral college.
Under current voting patterns, in which Republicans routinely win in the state’s rural counties, such a requirement would effectively end Democrats’ chances of winning statewide office. In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott carried 235 counties, while Democrat Beto O’Rourke carried most of the urban, more populous counties and South Texas counties. Statewide, Abbott won 55% of the popular vote while O’Rourke carried 44%.
However, some attorneys question whether such a proposal would be constitutional and conform with the Voting Rights Act because it would most likely limit the voting power of racial minorities, who are concentrated in a relatively small number of counties. (The party’s platform also reiterates its previous calls for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act).
The platform also takes a step further some of the party’s previous calls for more Christianity in public life. The 2022 platform proclaimed that the United States was “founded on Judeo-Christian principles,” for instance, and demanded the repeal of federal prohibitions on political activity by churches.
The 2024 platform goes significantly further: It urges lawmakers and the State Board of Education to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance,” and supports the use of religious chaplains in schools — which was made legal under a law passed by the state Legislature last year.
Though more subtle, another proposed plank could also aid Republicans’ ongoing attempts to further infuse Christianity into public education. This year’s platform also calls for Thomas Jefferson’s “Letter to the Danbury Baptists” to be included in the list of “original founding documents” to be taught in history classes, along with the U.S. Constitution or The Federalist Papers. Jefferson’s Danbury letter is often cited by activists such as David Barton, a Texas pastor and self-described “amateur historian” who has spent decades arguing that church-state separation is a “myth” that has been used to shroud America’s true Christian roots — a claim that has been thoroughly debunked by actual historians and experts, many of them also conservative Christians.
The new platform comes as Republicans increasingly embrace once-fringe theories such as Christian nationalism, which argues that the United States’ founding was God-ordained, and therefore its institutions and laws should reflect conservative, Christian views. Barton’s ideas have been a key driver of that movement, and were repeatedly cited by lawmakers last year during debates over the chaplains bill and in legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms. Barton’s group, WallBuilders, was also an exhibitor at this year’s Texas GOP convention, and the party has increasingly aligned with two far-right, fundamentalist Christian billionaires, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.
The draft platform also leans into the Texas GOP’s open hostility toward Texas House leadership and Phelan, with positions that would weaken the power of the House speaker and distribute power to the GOP caucus in the House as a whole. One plank advocates for limiting the speaker to two consecutive terms. Another calls for a discharge petition process, which would allow members to send bills to the House floor for a vote even if they haven’t passed the House committee process.
On Friday night, the convention elected former Collin County GOP Chair Abraham George as the next party chair, a vote that is expected to continue the party’s trajectory. During his candidate speech on Thursday, George called for the party to fight Democrats, radicals and “RINO” Republicans who go against “everything we stand for.”
During a speech on the convention stage on Saturday, former gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Don Huffines carried a printed version of the platform with him. He noted that Republicans have controlled the Legislature and the governor’s mansion for two decades, but the party still struggles to secure its priorities.
“We could get any piece of legislation done anytime we want, but, every session, we struggle to get our platform into law,” Huffines said.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/0a90a146a42951fe20e608a941fc993d/0524%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2023.jpg)
I forgot to post these yesterday as I lost track of things
The next bunch are from Jill at https://jilldennison.com/2024/05/19/you-bring-popcorn-ill-bring-da-toons/ or her entire blog https://jilldennison.com/ . I understand that we share a lot of the same viewers, but Jill is a wonderful person who has stood by in trying difficult times. She was one of the few when hurricane Ian tore our home apart offered to loan / give us money. We did not accept but it was the offer that was the grand thing. It is the kind of person she is. When I come across a funny video or one of a good person doing good things I send it to her. She never gets upset and sometimes uses them. When I am sad or at a breaking point I know I can reach out to her. So if you don’t already follow Jill’s blog, you would be wise to do so at the links above. Hugs. Scottie
Thank you Jill. You have been a friend indeed and a friend when I had a need. Best wishes and hugs to you, the girls, the fur babies, and all you hold dear. Scottie
Bring back the Gdammed EISENHOWER (R) TAX RATES…when UNIONS and the Middle Class Thrived
Back because I love the show and try to watch it ever chance I get, some more The Majority Report clips
‘Little maggot-infested man’ Tom Cotton rises to top of Trump VP list
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas
A new name has popped up in the chatter about Donald Trump’s potential pick for vice president: Sen. Tom Cotton. He’s reportedly high on the list because of his “experience and the ability to run a disciplined campaign.” As a running mate, the Arkansas senator “would carry relatively little risk of creating unwanted distractions for a presidential campaign already facing multiple legal threats,” according to The New York Times.
But it sure seems risky to put a no-holds barred racist, sexist creep on a debate stage with Vice President Kamala Harris. Cotton traded in his dog whistle for a racist bullhorn years ago, and has made headlines with his outrageous statements and behavior.
Here is a mere sampling of Cotton’s lowlights:
Attacking Ketanji Brown Jackson
During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Cotton teamed up with the other deplorables on the Senate Judiciary Committee to harangue the nominee about everything from QAnon theories to her history as a public defender, attempting to paint her as an adherent of “critical race theory,” as if that’s a bad thing.
Cotton really sunk to the bottom, however, when he all but called Jackson a Nazi sympathizer during a floor speech. “You know, the last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis,” he said. “This Judge Jackson might’ve gone there to defend them.”
“Judge Jackson voluntarily represented three terrorists in three cases,” Cotton complained to CNN. “And she called American soldiers war criminals. I have no patience for it.” Jackson, of course, did not call U.S. troops war criminals.
Those were the accusations that prompted Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison to call Cotton the “lowest of the low” and a “little maggot-infested man.”
Attacking the first Muslim American appeals court nominee
Cotton’s recent bigoted attacks on Adeel A. Mangi, the first-ever Muslim American federal appeals court nominee, also made headlines when he subjected the Pakistani-born attorney to a barrage of Islamophobic questions about the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, al-Qaida’s 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, policy issues regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and antisemitism in general.
Cotton bragged about his harassment of Mangi on X (formerly Twitter), crowing about his “gotcha” question trying to paint Mangi as antisemitic. Which is ironic, given Cotton’s previous antisemitic tweet history.
Blocking nominees of color
Cotton has a history of opposing Democratic presidents’ Black and brown nominees. From 2014 through 2016, Cotton blocked President Barack Obama’s friend and nominee Cassandra Butts—a Black woman—from an ambassador job. Why? When Butts met with him about his block, she told The New York Times’ Frank Bruni, Cotton admitted it was because “he knew that she was a close friend of Obama’s … and that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president.” Butts died of cancer more than 800 days after her nomination.
Smearing a Singapore national
The senator proved himself an equal opportunity bigot in a recent Senate hearing on child safety and social media, repeatedly attacking TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew—a Singapore national—about his supposed personal connections to “the Chinese Communist Party.” Chew repeatedly denied Cotton’s obnoxious assertions, reiterating again and again, “I served my nation of Singapore.”
That didn’t stop Cotton from running to Fox News to smear Chew. “Singapore, unfortunately, is one of the places in the world that has the highest degree of infiltration and influence by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “So, Mr. Chew has a lot to answer for, for what his app is doing in America and why it’s doing it.”
Defending slavery
Of course, Cotton’s racist theatrics haven’t been confined to Senate hearings. He authored legislation in 2020 to ban public schools from using a curriculum based on The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which dissected slavery’s impact on our country’s founding. He justified his bill by calling The 1619 Project “left-wing propaganda” and revisionist history at its worst.”
Cotton added that children should instead be taught that slavery “was the necessary evil upon which the union was built.”
National security sabotoge
When he wasn’t harassing people of color during hearings, Cotton also dabbled in national security sabotage, interfering in Obama’s negotiations with Iran on their nuclear capabilities. Cotton spearheaded a letter from GOP senators to Iranian leaders telling them that even if they came to an agreement with the U.S., future administrations and/or Congress could renege on it.
That infamous New York Times op-ed
And don’t forget Cotton’s gross New York Times op-ed titled “Send In The Troops,” which called for Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and use “an overwhelming show of force” against protesters who took to the streets nationwide in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police. The column incited fierce backlash, which led to backpedaling from The New York Times and the opinion page editor’s resignation.
None of this will diminish Cotton’s prospects with Trump, who likes him because he’s a smart guy with an elite education. Also, he’s a reliable sycophant.
Cotton has refused to condemn Trump’s love of Vladimir Putin, and has bragged about how he ignored the evidence and arguments in Trump’s first impeachment.
“My aides delivered a steady flow of papers and photocopied books, hidden underneath a fancy cover sheet labeled ‘Supplementary Impeachment Materials’, so nosy reporters sitting above us in the Senate gallery couldn’t see what I was reading,” Cotton wrote in his 2022 memoir.
Everything about Cotton appeals to Trump—and everything about him will revolt voters.
RELATED STORIES:
Tom Cotton calls slavery a ‘necessary evil’ in push to ban schools from teaching the 1619 Project
Tom Cotton leads the Republican fight to sabotage Iran negotiations
Republican senator turns hearing on child safety into display of racial profiling
GOP senators barrage Biden’s Muslim court nominee with hostile, inappropriate questions at hearing
Republican senators who attacked Ketanji Brown Jackson with racist frames got Fox News rewards
Republicans have their racist knives out for Ketanji Brown Jackson
New York Times gets justifiably smashed for publishing Sen. Tom Cotton’s fascist screed
We’re heading across the pond for this week’s episode of “The Downballot” after the UK just announced it would hold snap elections—on July 4, no less. Co-host David Beard gives us Yanks a full run-down, including how the elections will work, what the polls are predicting, and what Labour plans to do if it finally ends 14 years of Conservative rule. We also take detours into Scotland and Rwanda (believe it or not) and bear down on a small far-right party that could cost the Tories dearly.
Let’s talk about North Carolina, the GOP, and veterans….
https://twitter.com/CardinalAndPine/s…
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/art…
Social media:
https://x.com/VetsForRL/status/179413…
VRL pledge:
https://secure.everyaction.com/am8wCS…
Zakaria: Something very unusual is happening in Israel. Military officials are turning on Netanyahu
And now some of my favorite The Majority Report clips of the week
Jimmy Carter’s Unflinching Criticism Of Israel’s Apartheid State
Israel says it will return video equipment seized from AP
Israel is desperate to keep any information or pictures of their genocide and total destruction of Gaza from leaking out to the public. I just found out this morning that Israel military is telling the roving gang thugs that are blocking and destroy aid trucks food supplies where these trucks will be. Also the Israeli military has again targeted food and medical people, including shelling the emergency room and using tanks to shell the only other semi functioning hospital in Northern Gaza. The Israeli government / military is doing everything they can to destroy every aspect of Palestinians lives, culture, buildings, all so the people if any remain will have no way to survive if they try to stay there. The goal is to force the survivors to leave, be relocated so Israel can regain the land it claims as its own. Hugs. Scottie
Updated 5:57 PM EDT, May 21, 2024The Israeli government will return a camera and broadcasting equipment it had seized from The Associated Press on Tuesday, reversing course hours after it blocked the news organization’s live video of Gaza and faced mounting criticism for interfering with independent journalism.
The AP’s live video of Gaza was back up early Wednesday in Israel.
The government seized the AP equipment positioned in southern Israel after accusing it of violating a new media law by providing images to the satellite channel Al Jazeera.
Israeli officials used the new law on May 5 to close down Qatar-based Al Jazeera within Israel, confiscating its equipment, banning its broadcasts and blocking its websites.
After Israel seized the AP equipment, the Biden administration, journalism organizations and an Israeli opposition leader condemned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pressured it to reverse the decision.
Israel’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, said late Tuesday on the social platform X: “I have now ordered to cancel the action and return the equipment to the AP.”
Karhi said the defense ministry will undertake a review of news outlets’ positioning of live video of Gaza. Officials hadn’t previously told AP the positioning of its live camera was an issue. Instead, they repeatedly noted that the images appeared in real-time on Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera is one of thousands of AP customers, and it receives live video from AP and other news organizations.
“While we are pleased with this development, we remain concerned about the Israeli government’s use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel,” said Lauren Easton, AP’s vice president of corporate communications.
Officials from the Communications Ministry arrived at the AP location in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They handed the AP a piece of paper, signed by Karhi, alleging it was violating the country’s foreign broadcaster law.
Shortly beforehand, AP was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. The AP complies with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit broadcasts of details like troop movements that could endanger soldiers. The live video has generally shown smoke rising over the territory.
The AP had been ordered verbally last Thursday to cease the live transmission, which it refused to do.
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid called the government’s move against AP “an act of madness.”
Karhi responded to Lapid that the law passed unanimously by the government states that any device used to deliver Al Jazeera content could be seized.
Journalism organizations condemned Israel’s seizure of AP equipment, and the Biden administration also applied pressure.
“As soon as we learned about the reports, the White House and the State Department immediately engaged with the government of Israel at high levels to express our serious concern and ask them to reverse this action,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. “The free press is an essential pillar of democracy and members of the media, including AP, do vital work that must be respected.”
When Israel closed down Al Jazeera’s offices earlier this month, media groups warned of the serious implications for press freedom in the country.
“Israel’s record on press freedom already has been dismal throughout the war,” the Foreign Press Association said in a statement on Tuesday. “It has prevented independent access to Gaza for foreign journalists.”
The AP live video shot from Sderot has provided a rare independent glimpse of the situation in Gaza.
Israel has long had a rocky relationship with Al Jazeera, accusing it of bias against the country. Netanyahu has called it a “terror channel” that spreads incitement.
Al Jazeera is one of the few international news outlets that has remained in Gaza throughout the war, broadcasting scenes of airstrikes and overcrowded hospitals and accusing Israel of massacres. AP is also in Gaza.
During the previous Israel-Hamas war in 2021, the army destroyed the building housing AP’s Gaza office, claiming Hamas had used the building for military purposes. The AP denied any knowledge of a Hamas presence, and the army never provided any evidence to back up its claim.
The war in Gaza began with a Hamas attack in Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
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Kirka reported from London. Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani, and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Scottie's Playtime 