3CD DFL

Military personnel block Democratic activist from Ron DeSantis public event

Military personnel blocked a Democratic activist from a public event held by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday.

Thomas Kennedy, a Miami-based activist and member of the Democratic National Convention, said he was stopped by uniformed service members at a press event held at a National Guard armory.

“Just tried to get into a Ron Desantis press event in Miami and they literally had military personnel with FL Department of Law Enforcement documents with my photo and information waiting to stop me,” Kennedy tweeted. “This how terrified Ron Desantis is of criticism.” Continue reading.

Watch What’s Happening in Red States

In states where Republicans control the legislature, American life is rapidly changing.

It’s not just voting rights.

Though this year’s proliferation of bills restricting ballot access in red states has commanded national attention, it represents just one stream in a torrent of conservative legislation poised to remake the country. GOP-controlled states—including Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, and Montana—have advanced their most conservative agenda in years, and one that reflects Donald Trump’s present stamp on the Republican Party.

Across these states and others, Republican legislators and governors have operated as if they were programming a prime-time lineup at Fox News. They have focused far less on the small-government, limited-spending, and anti-tax policies that once defined the GOP than on an array of hot-button social issues, such as abortion, guns, and limits on public protest, that reflect the cultural and racial priorities of Trump’s base. Continue reading.

Fox News guests battle over US history: ‘We treated slaves nicely — that’s not the truth!’

Two Fox News guests argued on Sunday over whether critical race theory has corrupted the U.S. history curriculum in American schools.

Fox News host Mike Emmanuel began the discussion by suggesting that critical race theory is a “religion of division.”

“One complaint that I’ve heard is it divides our children based on their skin color,” Emmanuel said. Continue reading.

Robert Reich: Why the PRO Act is critical

Something I’ve just learned about Amazon – one of America’s most profitable and fastest-growing corporations, headed by the richest man in the world:

According to the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Amazon warehouse workers sustained nearly doublethe rate of serious injury incidents last year as did workers in non-Amazon warehouses.

In addition, largely because Amazon failed to provide its workers adequate protective equipment during the pandemic, the corporation admits that nearly 20,000 employees were presumed positive for the coronavirus. Continue reading.

Presidential historian calls ‘baloney’ on Joe Manchin claim filibuster stance is about ‘protecting the Senate’

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley literally called “baloney” on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) for his excuse for supporting the filibuster.

Manchin has drawn criticism from his own party, civil rights leaders, and historians with knowledge of the last centuries of Senate function. Everyone, other than his Republican allies, has spoken out against Manchin’s confused understanding of the process. Manchin, however, isn’t the only Democrat parroting right-wing talking points on the filibuster crafted from historic lies. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has also bought into the fake history.

“You have to strong-arm them,” Brinkley encouraged President Joe Biden. “Lyndon Johnson would do the lean-in treatment and stare you down, make your life miserable for you. You have to have discipline. Manchin has become a media star as being the guy who holds the Democratic Party in the balance. It’s unfortunate.” Continue reading.

Here’s Who Got Rich From Trump’s Disastrous Response To The Pandemic

Now that we’re all unmasking and the economy seems set to roar into the 2020s, what will we remember about how disastrously, how malignantly, the Trump administration behaved as the pandemic took hold? And will anyone be held to account for it?

The instinct to forget pandemics, as I’ve pointed out when it came to the 1918 “Spanish flu,” has historically been strong indeed. In these years, the urge to forget official malfeasance and move on has, it turns out, been at least as strong. Washington’s failure to investigate and bring to account those who led the nation and ultimately the world into the folly of the Iraq War may be the most egregious recent example of this.

In the end, that’s why I wrote my new book Virus — to memorialize a clear and accessible historical record of the deliberate and deadly decision-making that swept us all into a kind of hell. I had the urge to try to stop what happened to us from being instantly buried in the next round of daily reporting or, as appears likely now, relegated to the occasional voluminous government or foundation report on how to do things better. Continue reading.

In the Know: June 8, 2021

Governor Tim Walz
New Minnesota law supports inmates as they transition back into the community, KSTP
Lawmakers deadlocked on education budget; Senate Republicans release latest offer, MN Reformer

Minnesota Legislature
Where things stand at the Minnesota Legislature, one week out from a special session, MinnPost
Local lawmakers split on budget negotiations ahead of special session, The Neighbor

Minnesota News
Minnesota vaccine pace now short of July 1 goal, Star Tribune
Public is welcome back to the Minnesota Capitol, MPR
Minnesotans need to open our eyes about problem gambling, MN Reformer

There are already 19 QAnon candidates

For the time being, congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have effectively cornered the market of QAnon conspiracy loons in this year’s congressional class. But their monopoly on the “we believe there’s a secret cabal of satanist, child eating elites running this country” strain of Republicanism may be nearing an end, as a new and expanded crop of QAnon adherents ready themselves for a congressional run in next year’s midterm elections.

According to a new analysis from Media Matters for America, there are a whopping 17 new QAnon supporters running for Congress next year — the vast majority of them Republicans from Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and Nevada — alongside Greene and Boebert, who will both be up for re-election

Like QAnon itself, with its sprawling mythology and amorphic ability to incorporate any number of contradictory iterations and sub-genres, the roster of would-be QAnon representatives is as varied as you might expect from a group of people inclined to believe in a worldview predicated on baby cannibalization and devil worship. Some, like Arizona GOP candidate Josh Barnett, have attempted to explain away past social media posts that featured QAnon slogans and narratives by claiming he was just “retweeting the article.” Continue reading.

Sen. Klobuchar Statement on the For the People Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued the following statement on the For the People Act:

“While I am disappointed by Senator Manchin’s announcement, I will not give up the fight for voting rights reform. The For the People Act includes many broadly popular provisions that both Democrats and Republicans across the country support, including setting basic national standards to make sure all Americans can vote in the way that works best for them. This fight is not over, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to get critical voting, ethics, and campaign finance reforms passed in the Senate.”

Hunter Biden’s laptop: The April 16, 2015, dinner

When the New York Post released emails last fall from what it claimed was Hunter Biden’s laptop, The Fact Checker produced an explainer that turned out to be one of the most read articles in our 13-year history. A key question we examined was whether Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, arranged for a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm to meet with the then-vice president when he was in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine. The date in question: April 16, 2015.

A campaign spokesman for Joe Biden had said a review of Biden’s schedule for that day found no record of any such meeting. Officials who worked for him in 2015 also told The Fact Checker that no such meeting took place.

Recently, a reader directed our attention to a May 26 New York Post report, featuring more emails, that was headlined: “Hunter Biden brought VP Joe to dinner with shady business partners.” The article suggested Joe Biden met with the Burisma executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, at a dinner that was held in the private “garden room” at Cafe Milano in Washington. Continue reading.

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