U.S. House Representative Rashid Tlaib is a Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats in Congress. I am old as dirt (81 this year) but even I could see what Ms. Tlaib (and her sister) apparently could not see -- or just refused to see.
Norman Solomon started the astroturf of "uncommitted." He started it in 2023 with his group trying to stop President Joe Biden from running for re-election. These same (Socialist) resources were then applied to the Abandon and Uncommitted "movements." Ms. Tlaib and her sister were the front people because the hope was that they would be seen as "authentic."
Authentic is really important when you are a liar. You want to look authentic.
You are not authentic so you work really hard to look authentic.
So you take your Socialist self and pass it off as you are a Democrat. Because it is not really a news story that is going to get a lot of coverage if the press is saying: "Socialists say that they will not vote for the Democratic Party ticket." But it is a story -- a made up one -- if Amy Goodman can lie that Democrats are threatening not to vote for Ms. Harris.
So they lie there and they lie everywhere.
They lie about the convention, for example. See C.I.'s "2024: The Year of Betrayal From Inside The Left" and grasp that they really did not care about Palestinians at all. They publicly demanded a Palestinian-American speak at the convention. Before they got an answer, they dumped that woman. In her place, they plugged in a doctor. Too bad for the liars, she was a student in the last 20 years. C.I. has cris-crossed the country repeatedly and spoken to tons of college students. She identified the college where she spoke to the woman and the year (I think it was Stanford) and she noted that the doctor -- the Palestinian speaker -- was not Palestinian. She was Jordanian.
Everything these people said was a lie over and over.
If I were Ms. Tlaib, I would be on my knees begging forgiveness. I doubt most would forgive her. She is a liar so there is that. However, she is also responsible for the hell that all of us are now living in. I do not see forgiveness headed her way.
Amy Goodman and Rashida Tlaib are trash that refused to protect our country because they wanted to tank the 2024 election and give the presidency to Convicted Felon Donald Chump.
Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Keith Edwards talks the self-coup,
protests begin taking place around the country, anger builds towards
South African native Elon Musk, can you criticize Glenn and Matty while
hiding in a political closet, Socialism, and so much more.
In the video below, Keith Edwards talks the self-coup.
"We
can complain about it," whines Senator Pete Welch in a clip in causing
Keith to ask, "That is your answer for all of us? Complain about it?"
A movement to oppose the early actions of President Donald Trump’s
administration is taking off online, with plans to protest across the
U.S. on Wednesday.
The movement has organized under the hashtags
#buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states,
one day. Many of the protests are planned at state capitols, with some
in other cities.
The movement has websites and accounts across social media. Flyers circulating online decry Project 2025,
a hard-right playbook for American government and society, and include
messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.” In a
coffee shop just a block from Michigan’s Capitol, organizers of a
planned action there Wednesday pushed together tables, spreading out
poster boards to write messages that read “No Deportations Ever!” and
“Workers Unite!”
On Feb. 5, there will be 50 nationwide protests in all 50 states.
Orchestrated by the 50501 Movement, the protests will occur in all 50 states for just one day.
The protests are in opposition to Donald Trump's presidency and will be carried out in order to "fight fascism."
In Louisiana, residents will take part in the 50501 Movement protests outside the Louisiana State Capitol Building in Baton Rouge on Feb. 5.
The protest movement is against President Trump's
actions during his first two weeks back in office. After a plethora of
controversial executive orders and pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters, the
50501 Movement has organized to combat President Trump's position in the
White House.
Snowy streets, heavy coats and runny noses accompanied the ringing
cries and subsequent honks Tuesday as about 70 people gathered outside
the federal courthouse in downtown Spokane to protest the unusual
involvement by billionaire Elon Musk in the early workings of the second
administration of Donald Trump.
Toting signs that read, “We didn’t vote for this chaos” and “Elon”
slashed through by a diagonal line, as well as “Send DOGE to Mars,”
protesters came to the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday
afternoon.
“I’m here for my grandchildren and all future generations,” said Kim
Harmson of Spokane. “I’m outraged. You can’t normalize this.”
Joanna Ellington, of Valleyford, said she saw an interview Monday
night where U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, suggested that anyone
who was not comfortable with the actions of Musk, who has been appointed
the head of the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency,
to locally organize.
So, Ellington said she started calling those mostly older residents who she knew could immediately respond.
“We believe in the rule of law,” Ellington said. “What has happened
is unprecedented and illegal and very concerning to me. I decided to
have it now because of the actions in the Treasury Department. I just
wanted to make sure that Spokane voices were being heard.”
BLUESKY notes some of this week's protests.
No, people do not like Elon. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
Murray: “We should all be deeply concerned about
what it could mean to give Elon Musk and his cronies free rein at VA—I
am already hearing that DOGE may have barged into VA today. Musk and
his associates already have the personal financial information of every
veteran receiving disability or education benefits because of their
illegal data mining at the Department of Treasury. Will they now look
at private health records of veterans? What else will they do that
could put the health and safety of our veterans at risk? If Vought and
Musk push to cut veterans benefits and limit healthcare eligibility as
Project 2025 has outlined—would Doug Collins stand up to them?”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior
member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee,
released the following statement after voting no on the nomination of
Doug Collins to serve as Secretary of Veterans Affairs:
“Right now, the Trump administration is illegally withholding
funding from communities across America, and they are ransacking and
effectively gutting entire federal agencies—this kind of lawlessness is
putting our economy, national security, and future at risk.
“Today I voted NO to confirm Doug Collins as VA Secretary
because at this point I have not seen a single cabinet secretary stand
up to Trump’s illegal power grab. We should all be deeply concerned
about what it could mean to give Elon Musk and his cronies free rein at
VA—I am already hearing that DOGE may have barged into VA today. Musk
and his associates already have the personal financial information of
every veteran receiving disability or education benefits because of
their illegal data mining at the Department of Treasury. Will they now
look at private health records of veterans? What else will they do that
could put the health and safety of our veterans at risk? If Vought and
Musk push to cut veterans benefits and limit healthcare eligibility as
Project 2025 has outlined—would Doug Collins stand up to them? If this
administration continues to press VA doctors, nurses, and support staff
to resign—will Collins push back? I cannot confidently say he would.
“I had a productive meeting with Mr. Collins prior to his
hearing and we will need to work together on many issues, including
getting the Electronic Health Record system fixed, but I cannot vote to
confirm him as Trump dismantles government and breaks the law. As I work
with Mr. Collins to support our veterans, I will also be pressing him
to follow the laws as intended by Congress.”
Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’
Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the
daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their
families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray
has fought throughout her career for increased benefits for veterans,
housing assistance, better access to veterans’ clinics throughout
Washington state, and more accountability from the VA.
Advocating for women veterans in particular has been a longtime focus
for Senator Murray, and as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs
Committee in 2010, Senator Murray passed her landmark Women Veterans Health Improvement Act into law. Murray has worked to permanently authorize the VA child care pilot program to increase access to free, quality child care for veterans during their appointments, make much-needed improvements to the women veterans call center, and fix a loophole that
left veterans footing the bill for medically-necessary emergency
newborn transportation that VA should be covering. Murray introduced and helped pass the Deborah Sampson Act,
legislation to address gender disparities at VA that established a
dedicated Office of Women’s Health at VA and required every VA health
facility to have a dedicated women’s health primary care provider, among
other things. Murray also helped to pass the MAMMO Actto expand access to high-quality breast cancer screening and treatment services for veterans. Senator Murray leads the Veteran Families Health Services Act, comprehensive
legislation that would expand fertility treatments—including IVF—and
family-building services for servicemembers and veterans who are unable
to conceive without assistance, and she has sought unanimous consent to pass the legislation on multiple occasions. Last March, Murray applauded VA’s move
to expand IVF services to eligible unmarried veterans and eligible
veterans in same-sex marriages, and allowing veterans to use donated
gametes in IVF services.
Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the flawed Electronic
Health Record system rollout in Washington state since the Trump
Administration first negotiated the contract with Cerner (later acquired
by Oracle), and at every point in the process since then. Murray has consistentlypushed VA on its failed implementation of EHR—conducting oversight, holding the administration accountable, and calling on VA to halt deployment of EHR until they get it right in Washington state. In March 2023, Murray introduced comprehensive legislation that
would require VA to implement a series of EHR reforms to better serve
veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers. In the Fiscal Year 2024
funding bills, Senator Murray negotiated and passed as Chair of the
Appropriations Committee stronger language to hold VA and Cerner
accountable for the rollout of the EHR system, and in May 2024, she sent a letter urging
VA to consider feedback on the system from providers and veterans in
Spokane and Walla Walla and reiterating that VA must not move forward on
the rollout of EHR until the myriad issues that have plagued the system
in the locations where it has been launched are fixed.
###
And we'll note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing,
and Urban Affairs (BHUA), delivered remarks at the Department of the
Treasury, responding to Elon Musk’s takeover of government payment
systems.
Transcript: Press Conference - We Choose to Fight: Nobody Elected Elon! February 4, 2025 As Delivered
Senator Elizabeth Warren: In the building behind me, Elon Musk is
seizing power away from the American people. We are here to fight back.
A few months ago, Elon Musk spent $280 million to buy an election for
Donald Trump. Now Elon Musk is here to collect on his investment. He is
here to seize power for himself. We are here to fight back.
Musk has grabbed control of America’s payment system. This is the
system that makes sure that your grandpa gets his Social Security check
on time. This is the system that makes sure that your mom’s doctor gets
paid for her Medicare exam. Elon wants the power to turn that off as
Elon Musk decides. Elon Musk wants the power to say that your grandpa,
who frankly is a cranky old guy and sometimes disses Elon on X, doesn’t
get his Social Security check on time. Elon Musk wants the power to say
that your mom’s doctor is not doing it the way I would, so the doctor
doesn’t get paid. Elon Musk wants the power to decide whether or not
every road repair in America goes forward, whether or not every Head
Start Center in America opens, and whether or not every military base,
anywhere in the world, operates according to Elon. Elon Musk wants
everyone in America to be at the mercy of Elon Musk. We are here to
fight back.
Now, no one elected Elon Musk to nothing. Not one Democrat in America
voted for Elon Musk. Not one Republican in America voted for Elon Musk.
Not one Independent in America voted for Elon Musk. Not one Libertarian
voted for Elon Musk. Damn, not one vegetarian in America voted for Elon
Musk. And yet, Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the
American people. We are here to fight back.
This is no longer business as usual. We will speak out. We will
rally. We will power a movement all across this country. Elon Musk wants
power and we will fight back.
###
Trump and MAGA have ushered in the age of stupid as Lawence O'Donnell noted last night on MSNBC.
None
of this nightmare had to happen. America had the choice between Donald
Chump and Kamala Harris. There is and was a huge difference between
the two.
But
here we are. And we better be doing everything we can think of to
avoid 2028's candidate being attacked the way some on the left attacked
Kamala Harris.
That means getting ready for nominees. No, I'm not referring to 'fantasy football' garbae like 'We should run Jon Stewart!'
Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed concerns about the Party's
messaging and internal dynamics. In the wide-ranging interview,
Ocasio-Cortez also described her relationship with the party as "weird"
and pointed to a "power struggle" within its ranks.
"I
think structurally, overall, the Democratic Party has this confused
message," AOC said during a passage of an interview with the Latino USA
podcast hosted by Maria Hinojosa. "We're supposed to be a party of the
working class, and I think working-class people have not been seeing
government work for them, despite a lot of the things that the Biden administration did do."
Ocasio-Cortez
went on to argue that what she described as the party's inconsistent
messaging contributed to its loss in the 2024 presidential election,
adding that while Democrats are a coalition, the party is undergoing an
internal battle over its direction:
"I
have a weird relationship with the Democratic Party. I don't believe in
a two-party system, but I also understand the Democratic Party is a
coalition and if we want the party to change, the balance of the
coalition has to change. But right now, you open the hood on the
Democratic Party, what you have is, I think, a bit of a power struggle
over the last couple of years"
I
will vote in 2028 for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee no
matter who it is. But crap like the above? It means I would not vote
for AOC in the primary.
Yes,
she does "have a weird relationship with the Democratic Party." That's
because she's a Socialist, not a Democrat. Now Socialists of the SEP
will immediately object because they don't want her and think she's
weak. But she is a Socialist.
And
I'm really not in the damn mood to have to do this near weekly. Be a
Socialist, be a Democrat, be a Communist, if you're stupid enough then
be a swing voter who wrongly self-labels "independent" and you're
stupid, cruel and hateful be MAGA.
But don't lie and hide in a political closet.
Betty
Friedan hid in a political closet and when she died you could either be
honest or be part of the lie. Gloria Steinem is a Socialist. I have
no idea why she couldn't admit in her prime -- she lied to me, for
example -- but now that she's supposedly moved on to her final chapter, I
have no idea why she can't be honest. It's always left to others to clean up the mess that closet cases make.
Upon the organization's founding, Harrington and the socialist feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were
elected co-chairs. After the merger, the DSA became the largest
socialist organization in the United States, with a membership of
approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members.[13]
There
is the Democratic Party. I am a Democrat. We are not Democratic
Socialists. Most on the left in the US are not DSA (Approximately
80,000 people nationwide are DSA -- I spoke with a Green Party official
who's a friend and he states that they have a larger number of members
and notes that they got over 800,000 votes nationally for president --
those are not all dues paying members but, yes, the Green Party probably
does have about ten times the number of members that DSA has.)
I'm
not in the mood if AOC's the nominee in 2028 to go around defending
our Democratic Party nominee from right-wing charges of "Socialist!" If AOC is our nominee, I'm not in the mood to do
teach-ins in the months before the general election on what a Socialist
-- Democratic Socialist or other -- is.
These
are conversations you have now so that when a general election rolls
around you can say that this has already been addressed at length.
She and other DSAers need to stop hiding in political closets and start participating in the public square.
WIKIPEDIA notes, "The
dominant position in DSA regards the abolition of capitalism and the
realization of socialism as a long-term goal, therefore the organization
focuses its immediate political energies on reforms within capitalism
that empower working people while decreasing the power of
corporations." Abolishing capitalism is not going to fly with the bulk
of voters.
And
that may be why DSA -- that and it's tiny membership of less than
90,000 people in a country with over 300,000,000 people may be why they
don't want to be honest and would rather hide in political closets.
AOC could be a great president.
But part of leadership is leading and leading in the here and now.
In
other words, address this. Don't wait until September 2028 when FOX
"NEWS" and others are broadcasting every hour on the hour, "AOC wants to
abolish capitalism -- that means she wants to take away your property
and that means . . ."
Socialism
is something you need to be explaining now. And you need to be
explaining your brand of Socialism because, again, there's DSA, SEP,
PSL, etc.
You
already lie to the American people with terms like "Justice
Democrats." We can't win with liars. AOC and others need to come out
of the closet. Bernie never made it to the finish line. He never moved
beyond a candidate in the primaries and that's in part because (a) some
people feared socialism and (b) some people didn't know he was a
Socialist.
AOC has here
problems and issues with other DSAs. That's fine. She may be planning
to leave them. That's fine. What's not fine is sticking us, in the
fall of 2028, with having to note just get-out-the-vote but also to
reassure voters in a panic about what she stands for and supports.
Abolishing capitalism is not a winning plank in 2028.
Most
people are not going to support it. Some won't support it arguing what
would replace it? Gore Vidal and I often argued over his opinion that
we needed to redo the Constitution. I disagreed. I did not believe we
would have anything fair replacing it and I argued that the concessions
we have as a result of amendments after The Bill of Rights took forever
to be added. So I can certainly identify with any panic that the
thought of abolishing capital would cause. In addition to people like
myself who would want a plan on what would replace capitalism, there are
people who would say no. Reasons for the include, the "American dream"
which leads so many -- too many? -- to believe that we're all a lotto
ticket way from our big pay day. Then there are those who just fear
change.
That
I have to waste my time explaining this ticks me off. But Kyle
Kulinski and Cenk wanted to create "Justice Democrats" -- a group of
Socialists -- and try to trick the American people.
No.
Say
what you are or stay out of the election. And I'm not in the mood for
any closet case candidate that doesn't grasp how their baggage could
bury us all.
We have to win in 2028.
We can't afford nonsense.
Again,
if AOC wants to come out publicly as a Socialist or explain that she's
turned on Socialism, run for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination. But don't do it hiding in a closet. We can't risk 2028.
Yesterday, I posted a 'Bluie' -- is that what they call it? From BLUESKY. Like a Tweet from Twitter?
It was Ken Silverstein interviewing Eoin Higgins. I made the headline Ken. Here's the Bluie.
He's
done, apparently, a good take down of Glenneth Greenwald and Matt
Taibbi. Apparently. If I do a take down of them -- and I have many
times -- I don't leave myself open to a take down from them.
Note this passage of the interview:
KS: It is.
EH:
Where he loses me is that liberals are evil and the right is fine, or
at least not as bad. And it's like, no, that's not what's going on here.
When it came to Trump, Glenn and Taibbi both thought the Russiagate
stuff was insane, and I can relate to that, but it reinforced the idea
that liberals are the problem here, they’re the Deep State, or whatever
terminology they would use, and that animus towards liberals became the
most important thing.
I
criticize liberals and the Democratic Party all the time. One reason is
that I don't care about Republicans in that way, is that I'm not
expecting anything from them. Somewhere along the way, Glenn lost that
and he probably justifies a lot of like what he does now by saying, I
used to be allied with these people and they betrayed the principles
that I believed in, so fuck them, and there’s probably some of that with
Taibi as well.
Eoin, you do criticize Democrats and liberals all the time.
And, really, isn't that the actual problem?
No, I'm not saying Dems can be criticized. They should be. I'm not even tone policing. I've always speak in your own voices.
But, if you're a Democrat, you probably read what Eoin said one way.
In the eyes of the far left, "liberal" is a dirty word and it is synonmous with "Democrat."
Eoin wants you to know that he criticizes the right wing including the GOP and that he criticizes Democrats.
And Socialists, Eoin?
Eoin
is a Socialist. I wouldn't be promoting a book rightly calling out
Glenneth and Matt while I myself hid in a political closet.
Eoin,
who often contributes to COMMON DREAMS, does not criticize Socialists
-- whether he's passing them off as progressives or whatever.
We need to know that if we're going to be news consumers.
Yes, Socialist Eoin will slam everyone on the right and, on the left, he will slam Democrats.
We
saw those people near daily on DEMOCRACY NOW! -- how many times did Amy
Goodman bring on members of Uncommitted, for example?
We
aw them and we saw them passed off as people who were fair and
objective and we were led to believe we were all on the same page and
wanting the same thing.
I don't applaud Chump's
attempt to destroy our system of government so hold your breath waiting
for me to applaud Medea Benjamin's plans to overturn our government.
We
are where we are now because, in the fact of the worst assault on our
democracy, the left couldn't pull it together. We had Socialists
attacking Kamala from their political closets.
I'm not in the damn mood.
You want to call out Glenn and Matt? Do so. I have repeatedly.
But
everyone reading this knows where I stand politically. 20 plus years,
it's not hard to find that I identify as a feminist first and then as a
Democrat.
People in political closets passed
themselves off as Democrats and THE NATION and DEMOCRACY NOW! and THE
PROGRESSIVE et al went out of their way to ensure that took place.
Because a bunch of Socialists slamming Kamala could not create the
illusion that "even Democrats are agaisnt her." The lie and the closet
were both necessary to topple our nominee.
I'm
not standing for that again. I will vote in 2028 for whomever the
party's nominee is. If we survive to 2028, I will do that.
And
it could be AOC and I could see voting for her. But not if she's
hiding who and what she is. It's not our job to try to sell her in
October 2028 while also having to explain to the country what a
Socialist is. If she wants to run, she needs to be starting that
conversation right now.
Otherwise?
The
party that welcomed Rashida was never welcomed back by Rashida who
stabbed the Democratic Party in the back becoming the 21st century's
Zell Miller in the process. And, yes, Rashida, there was a difference
-- a huge difference -- between Chump and Kamala. Last night in "Rashida! I must speak to Rashida Tlaib!," Mike noted:
Last
week, United States President Donald Trump published a message directed
at the student protesters who participated in last year’s
pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
It was a warning. And it was aimed specifically at the immigrants among the protesters.
“To
all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put
you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,”
Trump was quoted as saying in a White House fact sheet.
“I
will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on
college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never
before.”
What?
What!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait, you mean Donald Chump isn't a friend to Palestinians! Or to those who support Palestinians!!!!
Oh, no!!!!!!
D-d-d-does Rashida know?
Where is Rashida?
Where is she!!!!
I need to talk to Rashida Tlaib!!!!
Can someone help me find Rashida!!!!
Socialist
Rashida screwed over the Democratic Party. Didn't bother her too much
because she's not a Democrat. Maybe that will bother you? The fact
that she lied about being a Democrat. The fact that she believes in
dismantling our way of life?
I don't know where it ends. But I do know she was dead wrong. And now a lot of Palestinians are going to die because of her.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump continues to be a love slave to Elon Musk. Maya Boddie reports:
President
Donald Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Monday could
neither confirm nor deny whether billionaire Elon Musk has received a
security clearance as a US government employee under the president's new
administration.
During
a press conference outside of the White House, CNN's Chief White House
Correspondent Caitlin Collins asked the MAGA secretary, "Can you confirm
that Elon Musk is a special government employee? And what kind of
security clearance does he have?"
Leavitt
replied, "I can confirm he's a special government employee. I can also
confirm that he has abided by all applicable federal laws. As for his
security clearance, I'm not sure, but I can check."
She
is as ugly as she is stupid. While claiming that she does not know his
security clearance she then LIES and states "I can also confirm that he
has abided by all applicable federal laws." No, you cannot confirm
that you dumb bimbo.
A) You do not have a law degree.
B) You are not in charge of HR.
C) You are an idiot.
As
awful as she is, Convicted Felon Donald Chump is far worse. And he is
surrounding himself with people who can only be described as malignant
tumors on the soul of democracy. JD Wolf (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) explains:
During a 2022 appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast,
Kash Patel, Trump nominee for FBI director, laid out a disturbing
vision for federal government personnel. He argued that not only should
officials at every level be ideologically aligned with the president,
but those who resist could face prosecution:
And
then personnel, you know, is policy and not just at the principal
level. You gotta go down 2, 3, 4 levels down. The undersecretaries, the
assistant secretaries, the deputies, the chiefs of staff.
They
all have to be people who agree with the commander in chief and don't
believe that they can overcome a commander in chief just because they
think they are saving America. That's not how the chain of command
works.
It didn't, it didn't work like
that when you were in the Navy, and it hasn't changed. And so we need
to implement personnel across the board that follows the commander in
chief's process and policies and that's the democratic process.
And
anyone violating that should be thrown out of government and maybe even
put in jail. But we need a strong Department of Justice to do that."
Patel
comments make it clear that he believes loyalty to the
commander-in-chief should override independent judgment, legal
obligations, and the desire to save the country.
Tuesday, February 4, 2025. Junior claims he won't violate ethical
guidelines and enrich himself by instead directing the case in question
to his son who will instead try to get rich off it, Elon Musk remains a
menace, Glenn Greenwald remains a fool and a Brazilian nut so why's he
butting into US matters, and much more.
As noted in yesterday's snapshot,
Senator Elizabeth Warren issued a press release regarding Robert
Kennedy Junior's nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services:
Washington, D.C. – During Wednesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)questioned
President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services
(HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. about his apparent conflicts of interest.
Following pressure from Senate Democrats, RFK Jr., today in written responses to Senator Warren, agreed to amend his flawed ethics agreement (see Warren QFRs at the end of Part 2 and start of Part 3).
In response to this new information, Sen. Warren released the following statement:
“After public pressure from Senate Democrats, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
has acknowledged dangerous conflicts of interest that would allow him to
profit from an anti-vax lawsuit while serving as HHS Secretary. While
he has now pledged in writing to fix his flawed ethics agreement, the
answers he has provided to this committee also raise new questions about
the scope of his conflicts.
“Given these ongoing questions, RFK Jr.'s nomination must not move
forward to any Senate vote until the details of his revised ethics
agreement can be thoroughly reviewed. It’s also critical that the
revised ethics agreement ensures that he cannot use his role as Health
Secretary to open the floodgates to more anti-vaccine litigation and
then cash in after he leaves office, including adopting a four-year
post-employment ban on accepting any compensation from lawsuits
involving any entity regulated by HHS.
“It would be insufficient for RFK Jr. to only divest his interest in
the Gardasil case while leaving the window open to profit from other
anti-vax lawsuits, including future cases he could bring after leaving
office.”
I'm not real
big on 'addendums.' You want to say something in a hearing, you say it
in a hearing. His 'addendum' has no weight at all.
And it turns out that it's a garbage addendum.
Warren's concern was with him profiting from his position.
Now
we learn that he promised to step away from a vaccine lawsuit . . . by
putting Connor Kennedy in charge of the case. That would be his son.
No, that's not divesting. That's handing your child money.
That is how corrupt and stupid Junior is.
'We are concerned that you will use this office to profit from lawsuits.'
Junior responds, 'No, no, I'll put Connor in charge and that way it'll be my son profiting!'
The smell of corruption always hovers around Junior. Always.
Grasp
that we've had eight years of did Hunter Biden profit from his father,
did Jared, Ivanka, Eric, Donald profit from their father? Accusations
tossed around. Ethics ignored. And now unelected Junior thinks he can
move a case over to his son and that removes conflict of interest?
In what world?
Kaia Hubbard (CBS NEWS) reports a
vote is expected today by the Senate's Finance Committee regarding
sending the nomination out of the Committee and advancing it for a full
Senate vote:
Meanwhile, two Democrats on the committee, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon,
the ranking member, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, raised alarm
about possible conflicts of interest in recent days, penning a letter
to Kennedy concerning his potential to profit from vaccine-related
litigation. Paired with his long-held stances on vaccine safety, the
senators said the possible conflicts give them "grave concern" about his
ability to serve as HHS secretary.
Kennedy has earned referral fees
from a Los Angeles personal injury law firm, Wisner Baum, for years.
The firm is currently suing Merck concerning warnings about the safety
of the HPV vaccine. Kennedy agreed to divest his interests in the cases
he has referred to Wisner Baum to a "non-dependent, adult family
member." The senators noted in their letter that Kennedy in his written
response to committee questions indicated he was divesting the interest
to one of his adult sons — a detail which they called "troubling."
"The
arrangement outlined in your Ethics Agreement Amendment is plainly
inadequate, as it would appear to allow an immediate family member to
benefit financially from your position as Secretary," the senators
wrote, adding that "vaccine-related decisions" that Kennedy could make
as HHS secretary "could result in significant financial compensation for
your family."
“I will be voting against
your nomination because your views are dangerous to our state and to our
country,” said Maryland Democrat Angela Alsobrooks after Kennedy defended his view that Black people should be on a different vaccine schedule than white people.
Kennedy could still win a surprise vote from the Democratic caucus. But the likeliest possibilities — senators like Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, or New Jersey’s Cory Booker, who share Kennedy’s desire to regulate pollution and food additives — have given every indication they’ll be nos.
After the health committee hearing, Booker shared a video on X of an emotional Sen. Maggie Hassan
(D-N.H.) in which she spoke of her son’s cerebral palsy and the torment
she felt as a mother that something she did could have caused it. “The
problem with this witness’ response on the autism cause and relationship
to vaccines is because he is relitigating and churning settled science
so we can’t go forward,” she said.
The Senate Finance Committee is considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination
on Tuesday, with a key vote on whether to advance his confirmation to
lead the Department of Health and Human Services after a pair of fiery
hearings last week.
Kennedy appeared Wednesday before the finance committee for a confirmation hearing, before testifying
to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions the
following day. During both appearances, Democrats on the committees —
and even some Republicans — grilled the longtime environmental lawyer
and activist on his stances on vaccines, abortion, and other issues.
Meanwhile, Donald Chump, the convicted felon, continues in his efforts to destroy the United States.
The U.S. federal government manages
a larger portfolio of risks than any other institution in the history
of the world. In just the past few weeks, wildfires raged across
Southern California, a commercial flight crashed over the Potomac, a
powerful Chinese-developed AI model launched to great fanfare, the
nuclear-weapons Doomsday Clock reached its closest point ever to
midnight, a new strain of avian flu continued its spread across the
globe, and interest rates on long-term government bonds surged—a sign
that investors are worried about America’s fiscal future. The
responsibility of managing such risks is suffused throughout the federal
bureaucracy; agencies are dedicated to preparing for financial crises,
natural disasters, cyberattacks, and all manner of other potential
calamities.
When
one of those far-off risks became a real-life pandemic in the final
year of Donald Trump’s first term, this sprawling bureaucracy, staffed
mostly by career civil servants with area-specific expertise, helped
limit the damage, often despite Trump’s own negligence and attempts to
interfere. This time, things may turn out differently. Trump is
committed to dismantling the federal bureaucracy as we know it—and, with
it, the government’s capacity to handle the next crisis. Like an
individual who chooses to forgo health or fire insurance, most Americans
won’t feel the negative impact of this effort as long as everything in
the world runs smoothly. What happens when the next crisis strikes is
another story altogether.
No
country was fully prepared for what became one of the deadliest
pandemics in history, but it is hard to think of a leader who handled
COVID more poorly than Trump. He spent the crucial weeks leading up to
the outbreak downplaying the severity of the virus, at one point referring to
it as the Democrats’ “new hoax.” His administration never developed a
national plan for getting the virus under control and reopening the
economy, leaving the states to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, the
president undermined his
own public-health agencies at every turn, telling states to “LIBERATE”
their economies, refusing to wear a mask, and, at one point, suggesting
bleach injections as a potential therapeutic. A February 2021 analysis
by The Lancet, a British medical journal, found that
the U.S. could have avoided 40 percent of the deaths that occurred
under Trump’s watch if its death rate had matched the average among
America’s peer countries.
The
administration’s pandemic response did include one shining success:
Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership that produced and
distributed high-quality vaccines in record time, saving countless
lives. But that triumph is the exception that proves the rule. The idea
for the program came from
Robert Kadlec, an assistant secretary for preparedness and response at
the Department of Health and Human Services, and Peter Marks, an FDA
official—two seasoned public-health experts who had served in top
government roles for years beforeTrump took office. The project was then
championed by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, who had been appointed by Trump
after working off and on for the department since 2001; managed by
Gustave Perna, a four-star general who had served in the military for
more than 40 years; and staffed by bureaucrats with decades of
public-health experience. (This success story has, of course, become
distasteful to mention on the right, because it involves vaccines.)
These are exactly the sorts of experienced public servants whom Trump is trying to push out of government.
He'll
destroy everything if he's allowed too. And what does he care about
the future? What is his future? He's a 78 year old morbidly obese
man. He'll be lucky to make it to 2028. And if he does? What?
Another divorce? A good chance of having to deal with a gay son? What
does he have to live for? Nothing. Not one damn thing.
So it doesn't matter to him.
And so we all suffer.
It didn't have to be this way.
Yes, Kamala Harris would have been a great president. But that's not what I'm talking about.
Let them die.
Next time, just let them die.
What'll really happen is they'll come running for the vaccine. But until they do, in the next pandemic, just let them die.
The worst thing the US government did in 2020 was try to save people.
You
can't save stupid. At some point, you have to grasp that you need to
let them drown before they take everyone else down with them. Their
stupidity -- amplified by home schooling -- should be allowed to kill
them next time.
I
understand the need for a herd immunity. But, next time, maybe let the
stupid have their own way and thin out the herd. Then we'll worry about
herd immunity.
We spent
too much time and money fighting a pandemic that some people don't even
want to admit took place. That's some deep seated denial.
Chump
wants to shatter FEMA as well. But even MAGA sees problems with that
-- yes, even deeply stupid MAGA sees problems with that. Alex Henderson notes:
The
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979 under
Democratic President Jimmy Carter, and Republican President George W.
Bush recognized the agency's importance when FEMA was placed under the
umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a recurring theme of the Bush
Administration was that disasters were a national security matter.
But
President Donald Trump, now two weeks into his nonconsecutive second
term, is expressing his hostility to FEMA — a hostility that, according to Politico's Zack Colman, GOP lawmakers aren't necessarily on board with.
Trump
is toying with the idea of abolishing FEMA, saying he may "recommend
that FEMA go away" and adding, "I'd like to see the states take care of
disasters."
"President
Donald Trump's suggestions that he might shut down the federal agency
charged with responding to disasters are running into trouble with
Republican lawmakers," Colman reports in an article published on February 2.
"Deeply red states are experiencing some of the costliest disasters,
and lawmakers from those states fear that eliminating Federal Emergency
Management Agency would leave them on the hook for increasingly
expensive bills."
Maybe
they could find their spines and push back on foreign born Elon Musk
attempting to hijack the US government for his own personal reasons.
The racist Elon, when not doing his Nazi salutes, shares fond memories
of South Africa, where he was born, where his father was born, where he
lived up until apartheid started to crumble. Elon loved apartheid. He
loved Blacks not having legal rights. He's trying to recreate that in
the US and Donald Chump's idiot enough to let him.
Donald
Trump on Sunday vowed to "act" on a purported situation in South
Africa, the home country of "first Buddy" and richest man in the world
Elon Musk, and some of his closest supporters pushed back.
After that, he mentioned an issue that some on the far-right have long complained about.
"South
Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people
VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t
want to so much as mention," the President said. "A massive Human Rights
VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see."
He
added, "The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will
be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full
investigation of this situation has been completed!"
Wow.
I don't think I've seen Chump so committed to an issue since he was
attacking Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana
and Korey Wise . You remember them. The ones innocent of rape who
were wrongly convicted and termed The Central Park Five? Even after the
real rapist confessed, even after the guilty verdicts were vacated,
Chump repeatedly lied about the young men. When it's time to attack
Black people, the world see that Chump can move pretty fast for a fat
guy when he's motivated.
Poor
Elon. Trump strokes Elon's . . . ego and even that's not enough for Elon
because he's the truly unqualified. Liars like Glenneth Greenwald and
Matt Taibbi dream of caressing the ass hair Elon moved to his scalp due to
his male pattern baldness. As they dream and cream over that
possibility, they never find time to call out his suppression of free
speech. Janna Brancolini (THE DAILY BEAST) explains:
Elon Musk is threatening to fire federal employees who leak information as he and President Donald Trump unleash unprecedented chaos on the government.
On Sunday, a user posted an anonymous “operational security reminder” on Reddit’s FBI forum
with advice for sharing information so it can’t be traced back to the
source. The post claimed that Musk’s staffers are using
“‘fingerprinting’ on emails and notices” as a way of identifying
“information leakers.”
“This
is essentially an email watermark—adding a space here, making a typo
there, and similar subtle changes to track leaks,” the post read.
Musk later replied to someone sharing the Reddit post on X.
“With regards to leakers: if in doubt, they are out,” wrote the world’s richest man. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
After spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars on President Donald Trump’s
re-election effort, Musk was put in charge of the Department of
Government Efficiency or DOGE. The entity, which is not a government
department, has been tasked with radically cutting federal spending.
Musk’s comment comes as President Donald Trump plunged the FBI into chaos by targeting officials linked to investigations into the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Remember,
it's not free speech to Matt and Glenneth unless it's someone making
hate speech. Then it's free speech. Then it's the language that they
love.
Glenneth's a damn
racist as well and we've noted it for decades here. Plural. These are
the people that our left media raised and praised.
We really deserve a better left media.
Glenneth,
he is a foreigner. I get it, you're stupid. We've spent decades now
explaining that you lie when you claim you were a Constitutional lawyer
and that you do not understand Constitutional law.
You
serve up your dumb ass opinions as if they matter. And as though the
US needs to hear from some weirdo in Brazil. You're jut a iar and who
hates their own country.
But, point of fact, there is no Constitutional protection or recognition of dual citizenship.
That's reality.
Here's
some more reality, Elon's father is from South Africa -- grew up there
and fled like Elon and the rest when apartheid was crumbling and White
racists like the Musks could no longer get rich off Black people. His
trashy and ugly mother was born in Canada and her racist family elected
to move to South Africa. There they had Elon. He is a citizen of South
Africa. Via his mother, he's a citizen of Canada as well. He lied and
did not follow the rules regarding his attempts at citizenship in the
US -- per his own brother.
But more to the point, you're now trying to argue that he has triple citizenship.
I think Clarence Thomas, given the chance, would love to tackle this issue.
Not
only is dual citizenship not mentioned in the Constitution but there is
no justification for triple citizenship. A Clarence Thomas would most
likely note that the issue is not in addressed in the Constitution but
while -- for the sake of families -- it might be necessary to allow dual
citizenship, there is no justification for triple (or more)
citizenship.
See, part of actually knowing
Constitutional law also requires grasping the manner in which Supreme
Court justices would most likely make their arguments.
Glory
Glenn did not practice Constitutional Law and you don't have to take my
word for it. No, just look at the rulings every time he stood before a
judge with some racist as his client and he tried to argue the case
revolved around a Constitutional issue or issues. Every time he
attempted that argument, judge after judge struck him down because he
doesn't know Constitutional Law.
By the way, if
you've missed it, we noted it yesterday, Glenny and the other grifters
have taken to attacking THE MAJORITY REPORT's Emm Vigeland. I have one
question there as toy poodle Aaron Mate joins the attacks, Katie Halper
have you no sense of decency?
You're going to keep your head down and act like it's not happening?
You
probably are because you're that pathetic. Closing in on fifty and
trying to look late 20s, you've been a joke forever and a day. But let
the left recognize this right now that while men -- and male aspiring
Ana -- are dog piling on Emma, you did nothing to stand up for her or to
call on others to stop it.
That's because you're not a feminist. You used it to get on at WBAI and then you worked your grift on over to the right.
These
toxic men can move to the right and make money. But where do you see
yourself in five to ten years? The new Tammy Bruce? It'll be cute if
she passes her confirmation hearing, especially with everyone on DAYS OF
OUR LIVES aware that Brenda Benet showed up on the set repeatedly with
one bruise after another. Tammy does love to play herself as the
victim. A lot of DOOL actors see her as an abuser and blame Tammy for
Brenda's suicide.
On Musk, let's note Lawrence O'Donnell from last night on MSNBC.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office.
Murray: “It’s
already painfully clear that this is the most corrupt administration in
our history, and it’s putting our economy, our government, and our most
at-risk communities in serious jeopardy.”
Murray: “Maybe Elon
will decide he doesn’t like that Blue Origin—and not SpaceX—gets a
contract, so he wants to gum up the works on their payments. Private
corporations and competitors need to take note. And anyone who thinks
that surely won’t happen has not been paying attention.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senate
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR),
Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to sound the alarm over
Elon Musk and his team at the so-called “Department of Government
Efficiency” being granted access to the federal government’s central
payments system, which handles $6 trillion and the vast majority of all
federal disbursements each year. Musk and his associates were granted
access to the U.S. Treasury’s payment systems the same weekend they
threatened their way into the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and seized Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
computer systems. New reporting indicates they are now forcing their way into Small Business Administration (SBA) systems, as well.
Murray and her colleagues outlined the threat of Musk and the
administration abusing the Treasury’s payment system to illegally block
funding and payments, the danger of allowing Musk access to Americans’
most sensitive personal data, and how this administration’s historic
corruption and illegal funding freezes are putting our country’s economy
and national security in jeopardy.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below and video is HERE:
“Well we’re two weeks in, and it’s already painfully clear
that this is the most corrupt administration in our history, and it’s
putting our economy, our government, and our most at-risk communities in
serious jeopardy.
“In particular, we learned that Elon Musk now has access to the
Treasury Department’s most sensitive payment system handling six
trillion dollars every year and managing nearly all federal
disbursements. It’s a system that contains extremely sensitive personal
and commercial information, and I’ve been hearing from people
across my state who are truly alarmed about what Musk and his associates
having access to this system could mean for their data—and for funding
that they count on.
“Let’s not mince words here. An unelected, unaccountable
billionaire—with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China,
and an indiscreet axe to grind against perceived enemies—is hijacking
our nation’s most sensitive financial data system and its checkbook so
that he can illegally block funds to our constituents, based on the
slightest whim or wildest conspiracy. Funds—mind you—that Congress passed on a bipartisan basis.
“Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has ‘viewing
access’ to Treasury’s highly sensitive payment system as if that’s
acceptable either. But why on earth should we believe that—particularly
when he is saying the exact opposite loudly and repeatedly for everyone
to see?
“What funds will Elon target next—life-saving medical research? Housing assistance? Food banks? We
already know he is falsely attacking faith-based organizations that
help people—and promising to cut off funds based off conspiracy
theories.
“The world’s richest man has vowed to cut off funding that helps the least among us. Think about that. And
next—think about how many dollars he himself makes from government
contracts. And the Trump Administration is handing the keys of the
Treasury over to him? It does not get more blatantly corrupt than that.
“And let me underscore just how dangerous this is—because now that
Trump has handed over Treasury’s checkbook, what if Elon decides he
doesn’t like how Ford is getting federal funds to build an EV battery
plant, what’s next? All Elon has to do is say ‘oh, they’re woke,’ and he can convince Trump to illegally cut off those funds.
“Maybe Elon will decide he doesn’t like that Blue Origin—and not
SpaceX—gets a contract, so he wants to gum up the works on their
payments. Private corporations and competitors need to take note. And
anyone who thinks that surely won’t happen has not been paying
attention.
“Now, make no mistake: Trump and Musk have absolutely zero
legal authority to hold up any federal payments that are law, but that
has not stopped them so far.
“This country is still reeling from the chaos of last week’s
blanket spending freeze and Trump’s illegal executive orders to withhold
funds are still not yet revoked. Trump and Musk have yet to find a law
they think applies to them.
“That is not how things work in this country. We have a
democracy. We have checks and we have balances—where the President is
accountable to Congress, where we pass the laws, and he implements them.
“But some of my colleagues across the aisle seem to be forgetting
that our democracy does not work by magic. We have to do our part to
hold the President accountable. Our job is not to say ‘yes’ to
everything any President does—no matter how lawless or harmful.
“Democrats are pushing back with the tools that we have. We
will speak out, we will press this administration, we will open
investigations, and we will demand accountability. The one tool we do
not have is the majority in this Congress.
“So that means our Republican colleagues have to say ‘enough.’ We need them to join us. We need them to stand up to the corruption and lawlessness and stand up for the people they represent.”