With Murdoch’s Encouragement, Carlson Promotes White Nationalist ‘Replacement’ Theory

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When Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch replied in April to the firestorm caused by his star Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, passionately invoking the “great replacement” conspiracy theory favored by white nationalists, Murdoch chose to lie. 

“A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory,” Murdoch wrote. This was obviously and insultingly false. Carlson had explicitly endorsed its core tenets during the April 8 segment, saying that “the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World.” White nationalists themselves knew better: They praised the Fox host for bringing their talking points to his massive audience.

His boss’ dishonest comment was a green light for Carlson to continue to promote that conspiracy theory — and the host took it as such. Over the past two months, as Carlson became the face of Fox, “replacement” has proven a dominant theme of his program. It also spread to other Foxpersonalities and, increasingly, to Republican political operatives and politicians as well. Given Carlson’s sway over both his network and the GOP, that trend is likely to continue. Continue reading.

Global approval of the United States has rebounded under Biden, survey finds

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President Biden has promised the world that “America is back.”

As he takes his first trip abroad as president, a Pew Research Center global surveyreleased Thursday shows that many in advanced economies believe it.

Trust in the U.S. president fell to historic lows in most countries surveyed during Donald Trump’s presidency, according to Pew.

Under Biden, it has soared. In the 12 countries surveyed both this year and last, a median of 75 percent of respondents expressed confidence in Biden to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” Pew found, compared with 17 percent for Trump last year. Sixty-two percent of respondents now have a favorable view of the United States vs. 34 percent at the end of Trump’s presidency. Continue reading.

Poll: Nearly One-Third Of GOP Voters Believe Trump Will Be ‘Reinstated’

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Nearly one-third of Republicans believe Donald Trump will be likely be “reinstated” in office in August, a new Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday found — the latest lie the GOP base believes surrounding the 2020 election.

The poll found that an overwhelming majority of voters, or 72 percent, say it’s “not likely at all” or “not very likely” that Trump will be reinstated. However, 17 percent of Republicans believe it’s “very likely” that Trump will be reinstated, while another 12 percent believe reinstatement is “somewhat likely.”

Trump himself has been telling advisers that he will be reinstated by August, according to a report from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman confirmed by other outlets. Continue reading.

Don McGahn’s unflattering portrayal of Trump

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We had to wait a long time to see testimony from former White House counsel Donald McGahn. And in the end, it was anticlimactic — at least as far as the known facts went.

McGahn fought a congressional subpoena for two years, ultimately reaching a deal under which he would testify behind closed doors — but only about specific events detailed in the Mueller report. McGahn was a key witness in that investigation, having said that President Donald Trump asked him to get special counsel Robert S. Mueller III removed. (McGahn refused both Trump’s request and a later request for McGahn to falsely deny the president made the request.) But the agreement and McGahn’s apparent desire not to make too much news with his testimony conspired to make his testimony far from earth-shattering.

If you read between the lines, though, McGahn’s elaboration on previously known facts doesn’t exactly paint a glowing picture of his former boss. Continue reading.

Capitol rioter had plans to bomb Amazon’s servers and take down the Internet: report

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According to a report from the Washington Post, a man taken into custody for attacking the U.S. Capitol as part of the Jan. 6th insurrection has admitted he later planned to wreak havoc on the internet by using bombs to take out Amazon’s servers.

The report notes that 28-year-old Seth Aaron Pendley, who is accused of taking a sawed-off rifle to the Capitol assault, hoped to cripple government operations with his bomb attack

According to WaPo, Pendley was arrested when he met with a seller of C4 explosive devices who was actually an FBI agent. Continue reading.

Saying the era of bipartisanship is over is a bit like saying that MySpace is over

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“Bipartisanship” is a weird, malleable word in the context of Senate legislation. Does it mean a bill that earned votes from a number of senators from each party? At least one vote from each? A bill that most Americans support? A bill that was drafted with input from members of each party? Everyone seems to agree that bipartisanship is ideal but, because of that, everyone also seems to reorient it in a way that’s particularly useful at a particular moment.

So we have Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) firmly proclaiming on Tuesday that “the era of bipartisanship is over.” The occasion was apparently another collapse in conversations between the White House and Republicans over an infrastructure package, legislation that both President Biden and Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) hoped would be in some form bipartisan. Again, what standard needed to be met was never clear. It’s like the old “know it when you see it” standard about porn, except for the polar opposite of porn, which is a congressional funding bill for highways.

As soon as McConnell made those comments, you could hear eyes rolling from the offices of Democratic senators. In part because of Biden’s repeated declarations that he wanted legislation to be bipartisan, McConnell has made few overtures to actually meet the Democratic mini-majority on legislation. In fact, he said last month that “100 percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration,” which isn’t particularly “bipartisan” as an outcome. Continue reading.

Election Denial and $16 Spritzers: Welcome to Florida’s Trump Coast

Lured south by sunshine, golf, and money, the former president’s allies and hangers-on have formed an alternate universe that revolves around Mar-a-Lago.

Since he left Washington in turmoil in January, Donald Trump has spent the bulk of his brief, contentious post-presidency holed up in what Karl Rove calls his “Fortress of Solitude”—Mar‑a‑Lago, his private club in Palm Beach. It’s an odd sort of isolation: Although he’s largely cut off from the outside world, Trump is hardly alone.

Tossed from the White House, banished from Facebook and Twitter, Trump has never seemed more distant from public consciousness. But while he can’t broadcast out, those same platforms offer a surprisingly intimate glimpse into his new life, thanks to the prolific posting of the club’s guests. At every moment of his day, Trump is bathed in adulation. When he enters the dining room, people stand and applaud. When he returns from golf, he’s met with squeals and selfie requests. When he leaves Mar-a-Lago, he often encounters flag-waving throngs organized by Willy Guardiola, a former professional harmonica player and anti-abortion activist who runs weekly pro-Trump rallies in Palm Beach. “Give me four hours and I can pull together 500 people,” Guardiola says. Trump recently invited the self-proclaimed “biggest Trump supporter in the country” for a private consultation at his club.

In this gilded Biosphere, Trump encounters no one who isn’t vocally gratified by his presence. When he speaks extemporaneously, so many guests post footage that you can watch the same weird scene unfold from multiple vantage points, like the Japanese film Rashomon. Trump seems so comfortable, the journalist and Instagram sleuth Ashley Feinberg has noted, that he’s taken to wearing the same outfit for days on end. Blue slackswhite golf shirt, and red MAGA cap are to the former president what the black Mao suit is to his old frenemy Kim Jong Un. Club members say his new lifestyle agrees with him. “Presidents when they finish always look so much older,” says Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of Interactive Brokers LLC, who lives three doors down from Mar-a-Lago. “Not true for Trump.” Continue reading.

HC Commissioner Chris LaTondresse Update: June 11, 2021

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Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week I toured the Brooklyn Park Recycling and Transfer Station which will be the site of the future Anaerobic Digestion Facility. The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners recently approved a new Anaerobic Digestion Facility. The New Anaerobic Digestion Facility will help in diverting more organics from trash and developing infrastructure to adequately manage the increased diversion of organics. This is critical as organics decomposing in landfills produce methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of trapping solar radiation and exacerbating climate change.

In the meantime, residents can dispose of household hazardous waste and problem materials such as appliances, mattresses, electronics, paint, and more at the Brooklyn Park Recycling and Transfer Station.

Updates you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:

Continue reading “HC Commissioner Chris LaTondresse Update: June 11, 2021”

Opinion: Five finance ministers: Why we need a global corporate minimum tax

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Every nation is facing inequities brought on by dramatic technological change, the surging market power of big companies and the fierce competitive pressures resulting from capital mobility. The worst global health crisis in a century has also challenged the world’s economies — especially their public finances — in extraordinary ways. Some countries are beginning to emerge from the covid-19 crisiswhile others are still mired in its depths. Each of us, in our capacity as finance ministers, sees two pressing concerns that could threaten all of our economies despite the differences between them.

First, wealthy people and corporations are doing much better than those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Low-wage workers and parents are forced to choose between their health and the safety of their children, on the one hand, and their livelihoods, on the other. As a result, they have disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic’s economic harms. Small businesses are suffering after shuttering to protect their communities. Meanwhile, corporate revenue has soared, and high-income workers and shareholders have emerged from the crisis relatively unscathed.

The second problem is a consequence of the first. Governments desperately need revenue to rebuild their economies and make investments to support small businesses, workers and families in need. And they’ll need more, as the pandemic recedes, to address climate change and longer-run structural issues. Revenue must come from somewhere, though. For too long, revenue has been drawn too heavily from workers, whose incomes are easy to report and calculate. Capital income is more difficult to tax because capital is mobile and income more susceptible to sophisticated accounting games. Continue reading.

Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez is Mexico’s finance minister. Sri Mulyani Indrawati is Indonesia’s finance minister. Tito Mboweni is South Africa’s finance minister. Olaf Scholz is Germany’s vice chancellor and minister of finance. Janet L. Yellen is U.S. treasury secretary.

Rep. Kelly Morrison Update: June 11, 2021

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Dear Neighbors,

I hope you had a safe and reflective Memorial Day Weekend. I was so grateful for the opportunity to join the staff and board of Groveland Cemetery, Excelsior American Legion Post 259 and friends and neighbors to observe Memorial Day and Groveland’s 150th anniversary. It was a privilege to deliver remarks to such an esteemed group.

Memorial Day at Groveland Cemetery
Continue reading “Rep. Kelly Morrison Update: June 11, 2021”