speak easy
speak easy's JournalPence pushes false election fraud claims in denouncing Democratic reform bill
Source: CNN
(CNN)Former Vice President Mike Pence is seizing on a Democratic-led initiative to streamline election standards to again push false claims of voting irregularities in one of his first public statements since leaving office.
Pence expressed concern about "the integrity of the 2020 election," citing "significant" and "troubling" voting irregularities in an op-ed for the conservative publication Daily Signal.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election, and Pence did not make any specific claims in his op-ed. Rather, the former vice president continued to promote the misinformation pushed by former President Donald Trump that led Trump supporters to storm the US Capitol as Pence joined the Senate to certify the election's results.
While in office, Pence never publicly challenged Trump's false claims that the election was stolen from him, but he didn't address the matter after he certified the results on January 6. In his last days in office, he touted administration accomplishments and avoided questions from the press amid Trump's impeachment, and has largely kept a low profile since President Joe Biden's inauguration.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/03/politics/mike-pence-false-claims-voter-fraud/index.html
Pence Op-Ed
https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/03/election-integrity-is-a-national-imperative/
The tragic events of Jan. 6—the most significant being the loss of life and violence at our nation’s Capitol—also deprived the American people of a substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity in America.
The Trump administration quietly spent billions in hospital funds on Operation Warp Speed
Source: Stat News
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration quietly took around $10 billion from a fund meant to help hospitals and health care providers affected by Covid-19 and used the money to bankroll Operation Warp Speed contracts, four former Trump administration officials told STAT.
The Department of Health and Human Services appears to have used a financial maneuver that allowed officials to spend the money without telling Congress, and the agency got permission from its top lawyer to do so. Now, the Biden administration is refusing to say whether the outlay means there will be less money available for hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, and other providers.
Several provider groups said they had not heard that $10 billion for providers was spent on Warp Speed contracts until STAT’s reporting. Congress set aside that money to help health care providers pay for pandemic-related expenses including staffing, personal protective equipment, care for uninsured patients, and vaccine distribution. One of the top hospital lobbyists in D.C., who also did not know about the outlay, emphasized how much some hospitals still need the funding.
“Hospitals in need of the funding would be outraged to know that some of the money was siphoned off, even for important uses, because Congress was clear that this money was for providers and clinicians,” said Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals.
Read more: https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/02/trump-administration-quietly-spent-billions-in-hospital-funds-on-operation-warp-speed/
Yahoo Report
The Trump administration reportedly quietly funded Operation Warp Speed with money set aside for hospitals
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-administration-reportedly-quietly-funded-165519534.html
FWIW: This is why Dr. Suess, Mulberry Street, was withdrawn / banned.
Pages 14 - 15
Detail
Thread
https://twitter.com/crabcrawler1/status/1366793542861996034
Madison Cawthorn: Big Time Liar.
The making of Madison Cawthorn: How falsehoods helped propel the career of a new pro-Trump star of the far right https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/27/making-madison-cawthorn-how-falsehoods-helped-propel-career-new-pro-trump-star-far-right/Madison Cawthorn was a 21-year-old freshman at a conservative Christian college when he spoke at chapel, testifying about his relationship with God. He talked emotionally about the day a car accident left him partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair.
Cawthorn said a close friend had crashed the car in which he was a passenger and fled the scene, leaving him to die “in a fiery tomb.” Cawthorn was “declared dead,” he said in the 2017 speech at Patrick Henry College. He said he told doctors that he expected to recover and that he would “be at the Naval Academy by Christmas.”
Key parts of Cawthorn’s talk, however, were not true. The friend, Bradley Ledford, who has not previously spoken publicly about the chapel speech, said in an interview that Cawthorn’s account was false and that he pulled Cawthorn from the wreckage. An accident report obtained by The Washington Post said Cawthorn was “incapacitated,” not that he was declared dead. Cawthorn himself said in a lawsuit deposition, first reported by the news outlet AVL Watchdog, that he had been rejected by the Naval Academy before the crash.
Shortly after the speech, Cawthorn dropped out of the college after a single semester of mostly D’s, he said in the deposition, which was taken as part of a court case regarding insurance. Later, more than 150 former students signed a letter accusing him of being a sexual predator, which Cawthorn has denied.
...
[At 25, as the youngest member of the House] he used his newfound fame to push baseless allegations about voting fraud on Twitter in a video viewed 4 million times, which President Donald Trump retweeted, saying, “Thank you Madison!” Then Cawthorn spoke at the Jan. 6 rally where a mob was incited to storm the U.S. Capitol, again alleging fraud and extolling the crowd’s courage in comparison with the “cowards” in Congress. He returned to the Capitol, where he falsely claimed that insurrectionists had been “paid by the Democratic machine.”
(Cawthorn denied a retest for an interview)
U.S. Nazis drop the Swastika in favor of the Odal Rune (November, 2016)
Off with the Old
On with the New
National Socialist Movement (United States)
The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is a neo-Nazi organization. It is a part of the Nationalist Front. The Party claimed to be the "largest and most active" National Socialist organization in the United States. It is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
... In November 2016, following the election of Donald Trump, the organization changed its logo, replacing the swastika with an Odal rune in an attempt to enter mainstream politics. The account of its leader, Jeff Schoep, was suspended by Twitter on December 18, 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Movement_(United_States)
America’s white supremacists ban swastika in bold attempt to ‘go mainstream’
THEY burn crosses, worship the swastika and associate with figures in white hoods, but don’t tell America’s predominant neo-Nazi party it’s racist. “We are not racist, and I do not like that term,” Jeff Schoep tells news.com.au.
The commander of the National Socialist Movement — described as the party “for every patriotic white American” — has a brand new reason to protest the point.
His party is about to do something it has never done. It is making a run at the mainstream, and it is even banning the swastika. Gone. Banished from uniforms that haven’t changed since the 1960s, well before the commander joined the ranks as a 19-year-old.
... The Odal rune, a less-well-known Nazi Germany symbol, will take the place of the swastika on all official uniforms and banners. Mr Schoep says it’s a gentler approach to preaching the same messages.
(In a statement on the NSM website earlier this month, Mr Schoep called it a “slight re-branding”. “Your party platform remains the same, your party remains unchanged, it is a cosmetic overhaul only.)
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/americas-white-supremacists-ban-swastika-in-bold-attempt-to-go-mainstream/news-story/53f68100ba52a1e33b13cf25b794d028
Senior Democrats explore tax largely hitting Fortune 1000 companies not paying $15 an hour
Senior Democrats explore tax largely hitting Fortune 1000 companies not paying $15 an hourhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/02/27/minimum-wage-democrats-biden/
Senior Democratic lawmakers trying to find a backup plan to a minimum wage hike are exploring new tax penalties on firms with more than $2.5 billion in gross receipts that do not pay at least $15 an hour, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The measure, which aides cautioned was still under discussion and subject to change, would aim to levy a 5 percent annual tax on these large corporations if they pay below $15 an hour, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of private deliberations. Democrats may aim to ratchet up the 5 percent penalty over time for large firms that do not increase their wages, although that measure is also preliminary and could change, the people said.
The plan being discussed would overwhelmingly hit companies in the Fortune 1000, many of which have seen record profits during the pandemic. The penalty would likely start almost immediately after the law is passed.
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Democrats to pursue these levies after the party was dealt a setback on their original plan to hike the minimum wage.
Golden Trump statue turning heads at CPAC was made in ... Mexico
Source: The Guardian.
A golden statue of Donald Trump that has caused a stir at the annual US gathering of conservatives was made in Mexico – a country the former president frequently demonized.
The statue is larger than life, with a golden head and Trump’s trademark suit jacket with white shirt and red tie. Video and pictures of the tribute being wheeled through the halls of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, went viral on Friday.
...
Now the artist behind the huge statue of Trump – Tommy Zegan – has revealed that the object was made in Mexico; a country that has been the target of much Trump racist abuse over his political career, and somewhere he has literally sought to build a wall against.
“It was made in Mexico,” Zegan told Politico’s Playbook newsletter. Zegan, who lives in Mexico on a permanent resident visa, described the transport of the monument to CPAC in full to Playbook.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/golden-trump-statue-turning-heads-at-cpac-was-made-in-e2-80-a6-mexico/ar-BB1e4Hnl
One of Ann Telnaes' toughest cartoons, and one of her very best.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/26/mcconnell-slithers-back-supporting-trump/
What does justice for Jamal Khashoggi look like? - An Activist's view
What does justice for Jamal Khashoggi look like? Unleashing free expression in Saudi Arabia.Iyad el-Baghdadi is an Arab writer and activist. He is the founder of the Kawaakibi Foundation, an Oslo-based organization.
...
Focusing on punishing dictators without assisting the societies they suppress risks repeating past U.S. mistakes in the Middle East. If you stop weapon sales to MBS, he can still obtain weapons from countries such as China and Russia; if you take away his ability to conduct operations in Yemen, he can still inflame a long-standing civil war using his significant disinformation capabilities. If you sanction him, it will be a blow to his power and prestige, but it will not remove him from power.
The best situation would be to facilitate the rise of internal checks on MBS. Ultimately, if the United States wants a future free from foreign interventions and forever wars in the Middle East, this starts with going from a paradigm of managing bad actors to one of encouraging the rise of strong societies that can move the region forward.
The United States must begin using its tremendous leverage with Saudi Arabia to secure the release of prisoners of conscience and the lifting of travel bans. It should then monitor closely if MBS arrests any newly released prisoners, especially if they dare take to Twitter (or Clubhouse, which is rapidly gaining ground) to express themselves freely.
Jamal gave his life for our right to free speech. For his sake, we must keep freedom of expression at the top of the agenda. A good future that honors his vision isn’t one where MBS is sanctioned but still oppressive. A good future is one where MBS is internally checked by free Saudis who are able to demand accountability from their government. To aim for anything less is to betray Jamal and his legacy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/26/saudi-arabia-jamal-khashoggi-mbs-biden-freedom-of-expression/?arc404=true
How stupid is this man? (Rafael Cruz)
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1365341567939211267Orlando is not as nice as .... that's telling 'em Ted.
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