Tuesday, April 23, 2024
The pro-Israel group planning to spend millions in US elections
Aipac was already on the defensive after endorsing the 2022 campaigns of dozens of Republican members of Congress who tried to block President Biden's presidential victory...
I Went Undercover At Moms For Liberty
Moms for Liberty wants to depict itself as a grassroots group made up of concerned moms who are worried about their children's education. In reality, they're a GOP astroturf group that has repeatedly peddled the "groomer" myth along with a host of other extreme positions. And to prove it, we went undercover at their conference in Philadelphia.
Christian Supremacists Are Radicalizing Your Neighbors via the 7 Mountains Mandate (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)
Matt Taylor joins Brad to discuss a new breed of chauvinistic, theologically bull-headed Christian nationalists who might be better called “Christian supremacists.”
BONUS CONTENT: AOC outlines why she fears Mike Johnson’s plans in 2024.
These hard-liners believe that Christianity deserves a privileged space in American society — that Christians, being better than other human beings, should be entitled to a superior form of citizenship. They claim that Christians are even destined by God to rule over society.
What is hazy nostalgia to the “God Bless America” crowd is an organized theological and political program for the Christian supremacists.
BONUS CONTENT: AOC outlines why she fears Mike Johnson’s plans in 2024.
Interview:
Trump’s transparent attempt to play the victim on ‘election interference’ - The Washington Post
Below is a summary of how what's known about Trump's actions compares to this purported "election interference."…
The Russia investigation
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report did not establish that Trump or members of his campaign conspired with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 election. But it did find that Russia targeted a hacking operation at Hillary Clinton's personal office just hours after Trump said publicly, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." (Trump claimed it was a joke, even as he has continued to solicit foreign help in campaigns.)
Top Trump advisers also met at Trump Tower with a Russian promising dirt on Clinton. And a bipartisan Senate report left open the possibility that there was more "collusion" beneath the surface…
Biden administration imposes first-ever staff minimum for nursing homes - The Washington Post
The Biden administration set a first-ever minimum staffing rule for nursing homes Monday, making good on the president's promise more than two years ago to seek improvements in care for the nation's 1.2 million nursing home residents.
The final rule, proposed in September, requires a registered nurse to be on-site in every skilled nursing facility for 24 hours a day, seven days a week...
Americans who want to protect democracy need to stand up for public libraries | The Hill
Public libraries, once considered the backbone of America's civic infrastructure, are now under attack in many places across the country. Every day, librarians are harassed, threatened and intimidated for doing their jobs by people who want to turn libraries into bloody battlefields in the culture wars that are dividing this country and undermining democracy…
Breaking our democracy is all part of the GOP plan - Raw Story
These are the people Republicans are counting on to support transforming America from a democratic republic into a strongman authoritarian oligarchy. The GOP's bet is that if they can keep things broken and bad enough long enough, then people will demand a dictator "who can get things done."
They even hatched a scheme called Project 2025 that hyper-concentrates political power in the White House, pre-positioning the next Republican president to be America's first dictator.
The good news is that President Biden is actually doing something about each of these areas where Republicans have worked so hard for the past 43 years to break our country. And his work is producing good fruit: inflation is down, employment is up, wages are up, and consumer confidence is growing…
Lara Trump touts ‘scorched earth’ agenda after 2024 elections
"He showed us a whole lot that we didn't know was going on — within the media, within Washington, D.C. He exposed a lot of people. So they have to do everything they can to keep him out of that White House 'cause they know Donald Trump gets in for four more years, the jig is up for them. The gloves are off. There are no holds barred here. He is going full-throttle. He's not worried about winning another election [in 2028]. It's four years of scorched earth when Donald Trump retakes the White House."
Trump Was Warned to Return Records to Archives, Unsealed Documents Say - The New York Times
Person 16 told the F.B.I. that Mr. Trump reacted to his warning with a "weird 'you're the man' type of response" and left the impression that he would in fact return the materials to the archives…
Person 16 also suggested that some of Mr. Trump's children had been enlisted in the task of persuading him to return the presidential records to the archives. The person recounted to the F.B.I. that one of the children was told: "There are issues with the boxes. They belong to the government. Talk to your dad about giving them back. It's not worth the aggravation."…
Biden unveils $7 billion for rooftop solar in Earth Day message | Reuters
Biden will also announce that his American Climate Corps will launch a web site, ClimateCorps.gov, where applicants will be able to see 2,000 open positions in 36 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico...
Fieldnotes for Surviving a Family Cult Part I (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)
In this episode, Dan interviews Michelle Down, author of Forager: Fieldnotes for Surviving a Family Cult, about her experiences and insights growing up in an extreme high-control religious community founded by her grandfather. Michelle helps us understand some of the dynamics of high-control religion, considers the role that coded language plays in such religion, and highlights the extreme focus on unity within such communities.
Interview:
Telling Jefferson Lies: Sally Hemings Bonus Episode, Whitewashing Jefferson, Part Three (Warren Throckmorton)
As promised, here is the completion of my examination of David Barton's whitewashing of Thomas Jefferson. In our book Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson, Michael Coulter and I assume the position held by most scholars and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation when it comes to the paternity of Sally Hemings children, i.e., Thomas Jefferson was their father.
In The Jefferson Lies, David Barton deceives readers about what Madison Hemings said about his mother. Here is what Barton said Hemings told a Pike County (OH) newspaper in 1873.
"The other major oral tradition challenging Jefferson’s sexual morality came from Sally Hemings’ son Madison (the fourth Hemings child, born in 1805). In an article published in an Ohio newspaper in 1873, Madison Hemings claimed that in France “my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine, and when he was called back home she was enceinte [pregnant] by him” with Thomas Woodson."
Here is what Madison Hemings actually had published in that newspaper:
In The Jefferson Lies, David Barton deceives readers about what Madison Hemings said about his mother. Here is what Barton said Hemings told a Pike County (OH) newspaper in 1873.
"The other major oral tradition challenging Jefferson’s sexual morality came from Sally Hemings’ son Madison (the fourth Hemings child, born in 1805). In an article published in an Ohio newspaper in 1873, Madison Hemings claimed that in France “my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine, and when he was called back home she was enceinte [pregnant] by him” with Thomas Woodson."
Here is what Madison Hemings actually had published in that newspaper:
"But during that time my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine, and when he was called home she was enciente by him. He desired to bring my mother back to Virginia with him but she demurred. She was just beginning to understand the French language well, and in France she was free, while if she returned to Virginia she would be re-enslaved. So she refused to return with him. To induce her to do so he promised her extraordinary privileges, and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the age of twenty-one years. In consequence of his promises, on which she implicitly relied, she returned with him to Virginia. Soon after their arrival, she gave birth to a child, of whom Thomas Jefferson was the father. It lived but a short time. She gave birth to four others, and Jefferson was the father of all of them. Their names were Beverly, Harriet, Madison (myself), and Eston—three sons and one daughter. We all became free agreeably to the treaty entered into by our parents before we were born. We all married and have raised families."Hemings did not mention Woodson because he was irrelevant. Sally Hemings first child lived but "a short time." Barton didn't tell his readers that part of the story.
The Monticello website on Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson:Research Report:
Interview:
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