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Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel Skewers Trump Over Oscars Joke Tantrum (VIDEO)

Donald Trump attacked late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in an early morning all-over-the-map social media post Wednesday. That night, Kimmel told his audience that he learned about Trump’s latest attack on him from all the text messages waiting for him when he woke up.

“Usually, like, I'll have maybe four,” he said. “I had 100 because it appears that I once again ruffled the feathers of our Kentucky Fried former president who is—apparently, with all that's going on—still smarting from my joke about him at the Oscars."

After reading Trump’s Truth Social screed out loud, Kimmel joked, "My first thought is I'm impressed by his use of the word 'vaunted.' He was even able to spell it correctly, which is really good!" He added, "But literally everything else is not just wrong, but ‘maybe we should be worried about him’ wrong. Like, ‘maybe we should take the keys away from grandpa’ wrong."

Kimmel then fact-checked Trump’s rant.

He conceded that Trump calling him "stupid Jimmy Kimmel" was a debatable fact. But he took issue with Trump’s claim that Kimmel is not only bad at hosting the Academy Awards, but he was somehow responsible for the show’s “big ratings drop”—a “weird” assertion, Kimmel said, because ratings were up this year.

Does the late-night comedian suffer from “Trump derangement syndrome,” as the Donald claims?

“There's only one person who suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Kimmel said. “His name is Donald Trump."

Kimmel noted that a big part of Trump’s attack on him seems to be rooted in his inability to distinguish Kimmel from Academy Award-winning actor Al Pacino.

"Now, don't get me wrong,” he said. “I wish I was Al Pacino. I'm just not."

As for Trump’s insistence that Kimmel’s wife, along with people behind the scenes of the show, were begging Kimmel to not read Trump's Truth Social attack live on air during the Academy Awards broadcast, Kimmel gave this hilarious blow-by-blow account of how that all went down.

What happened is they showed me what he posted. I looked at it. I said, “Oh, I'm going to read this.”My wife went, “Oh no.”
I said, “Oh yes.”

And that was that. That was the whole story.

Kimmel said he wasn't planning to accept hosting duties again, even though he's been asked, but now that Trump weighed in on it, he has to consider it.

"You know what? Maybe you can watch on the TV in the rec room at Rikers with all the guys," he said.

And since it clearly still bothers Trump, Kimmel played the clip of him making fun of Trump at the Academy Awards by reading out Trump's attack on him.

Kimmel then reminded the audience that his show received better ratings than Trump would have you believe, with a graph showing that ratings have increased in the two years Kimmel has hosted.

"I just want to say that that is not 'down.' You want to know what 'down' looks like?” Kimmel asked, before putting up a graph showing stock plummeting. “This is the value of Truth Social stock, your company. That's 'down.'"

Zachary Mueller is the senior research director for America’s Voice and America’s Voice Education Fund. He brings his expertise on immigration politics to talk about how much money the GOP is using to promote its racist immigration campaigns.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Kennedy Biden

Kennedy Family Visits Biden White House -- Without Disgraced RFK Jr.

Members of the Kennedy family visited the White House Sunday for President Joe Biden’s St. Patrick’s Day brunch, and in case there’s any doubt about the family’s allegiances this coming November, Kerry Kennedy posted an image of the clan with the president, writing, “President Biden, you make the world better. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.”

Erstwhile Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president as an independent, was missing from the happy tableau.

The famously Democratic Kerry Kennedy didn’t mention her brother, his strange presidential bid, or his bad ideas about vaccines and public health—but she didn’t have to.

In October, Kerry posted a statement on behalf of her siblings denouncing their brother’s candidacy and throwing their support behind Biden.

“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” she wrote. “Today's announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country.”

RFK Jr.’s ideas on public health are so out there that his ally list includes speculative running mate Aaron Rodgers, who is an NFL quarterback and enthusiastic conspiracy theorist.

But that didn’t ruin the rest of the Kennedy clan’s St. Paddy’s Day fun. Biden acknowledged their attendance at the event, saying, “Welcome almost home. It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without you.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Trump's TikTok Flip-Flop Follows Meeting With Platform's Big Investor

Trump's TikTok Flip-Flop Follows Meeting With Platform's Big Investor

On Monday, Donald Trump appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and declared that TikTok shouldn't be banned in the United States.

“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger,” he said, “and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.” This is the exact opposite of Trump’s 2020 position that TikTok should be banned in the United States as a Chinese spying operation. His administration was unsuccessful in getting TikTok removed from app stores, and his executive order attempting to ban the app faced legal challenges and was never enforced.

Trump’s dramatic reversal comes only a couple of weeks after meeting with billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass. Yass’ company, Susquehanna International Group, has a 15 percent stake in ByteDance—the company that owns TikTok. Shocker! When CNBC’s Andrew Sorkin asked Trump about his meeting with Yass and subsequent turnabout on TikTok, Trump claimed Yass “never mentioned TikTok.”

Campaign finance reports have shown a recent and precipitous decline in Trump’s fundraising. The news that Trump’s tap might have run dry comes at a terrible time, as he faces a contentious presidential campaign and owes roughly $542 million in legal debts due to defamation and fraud judgments against him.

Politicoreports that Trump spoke glowingly of Yass—who has previously been a critic of Trump—at a Club for Growth retreat in February, calling Yass “fantastic.”

Yass and Club for Growth spent millions to promote failed presidential candidates like Gov. Ron DeSantis and billionaire autocrat-in-training Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump’s positioning for a little pay-to-play action isn’t guaranteed, but he does have a successful history of transactional presidenting.

Trump’s flip-flop on TikTok also comes during a week when Republican leadership in Congress is set to move against the wildly popular app by proposing legislation that would force the company to be sold or face a ban in the U.S. The lack of integrity at the top of the MAGA food chain is leading to some very awkward moments.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

GOP Legislators Undermine Public Health As Measles Spreads Across 15 States

GOP Legislators Undermine Public Health As Measles Spreads Across 15 States

West Virginia’s Republicans passed a bill through the House of Delegates on Monday that would allow religious exemptions for vaccines required for school attendance. The bill comes as dozens of measles cases across 15 states have been reported. The bill will now head to the state Senate for debate. If the bill passes, it would be the first nonmedical vaccine exemption allowed in West Virginia.

The bill began as a proposal to eliminate vaccine requirements for public virtual schooling, but it has expanded to allow private schools the right to decide whether to require vaccinations for their students. Whether the bill would allow parents to exempt their child from a public school’s vaccine mandate remains unclear at this time, according to analysis from ABC News.

The state GOP’s attempt to dismantle public health protections isn’t going over well with some West Virginians, though. Dr. Steven Eshenaur, the health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston health department, told the Associated Press, “It escapes sound reasoning why anyone would want to weaken childhood immunization laws. Our children are more important than any agenda that would bring these horrific diseases back to the Mountain State.”

Meanwhile, Republican-controlled Florida is in the midst of a measles outbreak at Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County. Seven of 10 statewide cases of measles have ties to the school, while the state’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo recently issued a letter that didn’t urge parents to make sure their children were immunized. Ladapo, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is best known for his vaccine denialism during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida has called for Ladapo to either resign or be fired. She said his handling of the Broward County outbreak has been “grossly irresponsible,” and calling Ladapo “a misinformation super spreader.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data in November showing that national vaccination rates among kindergartners have yet to return to their pre-pandemic levels, making West Virginia’s flirtation with religious-exemption policies that much more troubling. Currently, children in West Virginia are required to have at least one dose of chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough before entering K-12 school for the first time.

By leaning into the right’s anti-science movement, GOP-controlled states are encouraging a new normal that includes outbreaks of childhood diseases once thought to be eliminated more than two decades ago.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Lara Trump

Trump's Handpicked Co-Chair: 'In America, We Get Ahead By Merit Alone'

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, got under way on Thursday. One of the big names on the stage was none other than Donald Trump’s sycophant daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is also the oft-indicted former president’s hand-picked candidate for co-chair of the Republican National Committee. She gave a pretty standard let’s-go-Donald-Trump speech, filled with some grade-school jingoism and an astonishing lack of self-awareness.

After throwing some red meat to the GOP base by bringing up the fabricated epidemic of trans student athletes, Lara made this extraordinary claim about her daughter: “I want her to understand that in the United States of America, we get ahead and succeed by merit and merit alone.”

That’s a truly rich statement coming from the former Lara Yunaska who, to repeat, was just endorsed as co-chair of the RNC by her powerful father-in-law, even though her main qualification seems to be her last name—unless her experience as a TV producer, Trump campaign surrogate, and Fox News talking head is supposed to count.

Lara’s seeming delusion about what constitutes a meritocracy is shared by others in her family. Who could forget when Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka bragged about her childhood business acumen—which amounted to her extorting the maids and butlers working for her father?

The Trump family epitomizes how being a failure at virtually everything you do means nothing when you are born (or married) rich.

Democratic voters know Joe Biden is old and MAGA voters like to pretend that Trump isn't just as long in the tooth. Both men were old the last time we did this and the only thing that’s changed is Biden is now a successful incumbent, while Trump is busy juggling trials and indictments.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Donald Trump

You'll Love Trump's Perfect Excuse For Mixing Up Pelosi And Haley

Donald Trump held a rally on Wednesday in North Charleston, South Carolina, in the run-up to the state’s Republican primary. Trump decided to address one of his many recent forgetful moments, when he confused his primary opponent Nikki Haley with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, saying Haley was in charge of security on January 6, 2021.

When I interpose, because I'm not a Nikki fan and I'm not a Pelosi fan. And when I purposely interpose names, they said, ‘He didn't know Pelosi from Nikki, from Tricky Nikki, Tricky Dickie. He didn't know.’ I interpose and they make a big deal out of it. I said no, no. I think they both stink, they have something in common, they both stink.

Let me interpose myself here, between Trump and the actual definition of the word “interpose.” What would the betting line be that Trump vaguely remembered the word “interchange” and the word “transpose,” but then was too afraid to mutter “trans,” and thought he created a portmanteau?

Nothing says “speculation about my cognitive abilities and forgetfulness in recent months is totally not bothering me” like blathering to an audience while accidentally transposing words to prove it doesn’t bother you.

Trump wants everyone to forget that he personally picked former South Carolina Gov. Haley to be his United Nations ambassador. That’s who he mistakenly named and blamed as Speaker of the House for the Capitol insurrection.

Other people and things Trump has recently interposed:

  • Joe Biden and Barack Obama
  • Ex-wife Marla Maples and E. Jean Carroll (who accused him of rape)
  • World War II and World War III
  • North Korea and China
  • Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
  • Jeb Bush and George W. Bush

Trump also threw water on any hope that he might choose Haley as a running mate, saying, “When I make a statement like that about Nikki, that means she will never be running for vice president.”

Here’s a clip of Donald “interposing” the two women, whose only similarity is a willingness to challenge his narcissism.

Republicans demanded border security, worked on a compromise deal with Democrats, and now want to blow the whole thing up. Biden is promising to remind Americans every day that the Republican Party is at fault for the lack of solutions to the problems they claim are most important.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Steve Bannon

Bannon At Risk In New York Fraud Case -- After Stiffing His Lawyer

Steve Bannon is having a bad one. A recent filing by Bannon’s lawyers suggests the former top advisor to Donald Trump may have shot himself in the foot when he decided to not pay the nearly half a million dollars he owed his previous lawyer, Robert Costello, for services rendered.

The law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, where Costello is a partner, sued Bannon in early 2023, winning a judgment against him in July. According to the Daily Beast, Bannon’s lawyers filed a motion on January 11, to block Costello’s firm from pursuing “post-judgment discovery from Mr. Bannon,” by arguing that the requests for banking statements and other information that the law firm had asked for “poses a significant risk of compromising Mr. Bannon’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”

At issue seems to be the fact that while Bannon is facing an indictment in New York City alleging that he defrauded donors to the “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign, these “post-judgement” discovery requests might force Bannon to admit a teensy-weensy bit of fraud.

When Bannon and his crew were originally arrested and federally charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, he got the lucky break that Donald Trump was still in office and pardoned him. By most reports, there was more than enough evidence that money raised by the “We Build the Wall” scam was going to anything but building a wall. It came as no surprise when Brian Kolfage, the fundraiser’s co-founder, pled guilty to his role in siphoning off money from the campaign. Last April, the Associate Press detailed the allegations:

Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.

As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced new charges against Bannon and WEBUILDTHEWALL, INC., in September 2022. Bannon’s trial has been set for May 28, 2024. But a couple months after the charges, Bannon’s prospects seemed to go in the toilet when he said he needed a new law team, citing “irreconcilable differences” and a communication breakdown.

Two months later, Bannon’s billionaire buddy Guo Wengui was arrested and indicted by federal agents for his own alleged fraud scheme involving his Gettr social media platform. Gettr has financial ties with Bannon and his podcast. In its recent filing, law firm where Costello is a parter has reportedly served restraining notices to entities like Gettr and Bannon’s War Room LLC (which produces his podcast). According to New York-based debt collection attorney Jocelyn Nager:

A restraining notice is a legal document served by a collection attorney or creditor that requires the recipient of the subpoena to hold any monies or other specific types of assets that belong to the judgment debtor. The judgment debtor does not need to be in possession of these assets. In most cases, a third party holds the assets for the judgment debtor.

Judgment creditors can serve restraining notices on financial institutions, like a bank. The bank searches its database and, if they locate an account or safe deposit bank, absent an exemption, the bank must restrain the asset for up to one year.

Earlier this week, Manhattan prosecutors mocked Bannon’s attempt to dismiss his fraud case as “bear[ing] little resemblance to reality.” They wrote, “People's presentation in the instant matter included ample evidence that was more than sufficient to support the grand jury's decision to vote the charges laid out in the indictment.”

It couldn’t be happening to a better guy.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Kyrsten Sinema

Several GOP Senators Backed Biden Judicial Nominee -- But Not Sinema

On Wednesday, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema reached a new milestone in her turncoat Senate journey when she voted not to confirm U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews to a Colorado seat. Luckily Crews received the support of every other Senate Democrat, a couple Republicans, and one independent not named Sinema and was confirmed by a 51-48 vote.

Sinema did not respond to queries about her vote, but considering that she reportedly voted in 95 of the Trump judicial nominees, it seems unlikely she found an honest criticism of Crews. It seems more likely that as we enter the election year, Sinema is looking to find splashy ways to prove that she is an “independent.” What she’s “independent” about is hard to divine. While her team has quietly crafted a plan to show donors how she could win reelection, she has made no formal announcement about her 2024 plans.

This was the first time Sinema has voted against one of Biden’s judicial nominations, but not her first time voting against the Democratic Party. Since ascending to the Senate after defeating Republican Martha McSally, Sinema has quickly become something of a monster, turning her back on so many of the constituents who voted her into office. In her first year in office she voted against her then Democratic colleagues 27.5 percent of the time—second only to West Virginia’s most corrupt official, Sen. Joe Manchin.

Sinema’s crowning achievement was the derision she earned when she voted to tank the $15 minimum wage amendment to the American Rescue Plan, and made a big show of licking Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s boots to do it. Less than a year later, Sinema was announcing to everybody she was no longer a Democrat but an independent. The people who were surprised or cared about the Arizona senator’s new affiliation at the time could be summed up as Kyrsten Sinema.

Sinema’s ever-increasing betrayal of her originally stated values has led virtually every former Democratic organization to endorse Rep. Ruben Gallego’s run for Senate in 2024. That Sinema’s lip service to centrism rings untrue and she has only proven to voters of all political persuasions that she is untrustworthy have also made her unpopular across the political spectrum.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Martha McSally as the incumbent in the Senate race she lost to Kyrsten Sinema. The race was for an open seat.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Busted: Moms For Liberty Moralist Quits School Board After Shoplifting Arrest

Busted: Moms For Liberty Moralist Quits School Board After Shoplifting Arrest

This past Friday, Keri Leigh Blair, a Tennessee school board member backed by the far-right group Moms for Liberty, was arrested and charged with stealing over $700 of merchandise from a local Target. Oh, the morality! Blair resigned from her position on the Collierville Schools board on Tuesday, having served just over one year, saying she is leaving for “personal, family reasons.”

According to the Collierville Police Department, Blair is accused of stealing from Target by “skip scanning” items at the self-checkout on November 25, November 30, Deccember 3, December 6, December13, December 18, and December 20—seven times! Target alleges Blair made off with $728.61, and police say the chain “is prosecuting.”

This is just the latest example of book-banning moralist moms behaving badly. Around the same time that Blair was being investigated, a so-called “parental rights” activist in Pennsylvania was facing criminal charges of “assault, harassment, and furnishing minors with alcohol” at a birthday party she hosted in September.

The rot of this anti-education movement can be seen at the top as well. Recently, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler and her politically connected Republican husband, Christian Ziegler, have been embroiled in a scandal after a woman who’d been in a sexual relationship with the married couple accused Mr. Ziegler of sexual assault. In every instance, these holier-than-thou actors—who seek to censor our country’s racial history and attack LGBTQ+ children—demand that everyone submit to their narrow view of the world. Everyone except, of course, themselves.

As for the school board seat left vacant by Blair, the local ABC affiliate reports that state law dictates that the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen appoint a replacement who would serve until November 2024.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

George Santos

Santos Threatens House Republicans With Corruption 'Receipts' (VIDEO)

On Sunday, pathological backstory-fabricator George Santos granted an interview to a local CBS affiliate in New York. Appearing on “The Point with Marcia Kramer,” the ousted Congress member declared that he had learned from his mistakes and that he was going to atone by exposing all of the corruption he saw in Washington—and named fellow Republicans as some of the biggest offenders.

Fellow Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis from New York’s 11th District has been one of Santos’ favored targets. He has publicly called Malliotakis corrupt, intimating that she has used her position to commit insider trading violations. Asked about his claims, Santos said, “I saw how the sausage is made and I have receipts and I'm willing to show the American people. You don't need to believe me; believe the proof and the evidence,” and promised to reveal this evidence in the near future."

George Santos: I mean, NicoleMallioStockTips, as I call her now—I mean, she's insider trading and it's almost evident if you look at her disclosures … I mean, it's not hard to see a member—

Marcia Kramer: —How do we prove that?

Santos: It's very easy. She receives classified briefings as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. It takes a very competent FBI officer to go look at her trading and how it works and just look at her communication. This is all digitized these days. It's not hard to see a person saying, “Hey, do this trade, I just got a good tip.”

Kramer: She's pushed back on that, though.

Santos: Well, they all push back. But can somebody explain to me how is it that she miraculously becomes a member of the committee and then she's doing trades on NYCB, with the Signature Bank collapse, just the day before having an 80% stock hike? That's not a lucky trade, Marcia. That's a very well-informed trade.


Malliotakis is one of the Republicans who voted to expel Santos from the House. The trade Santos is referring to took place earlier this year and absolutely reeks of insider trading. She is just one of the Republicans Santos targeted on social media the same evening as his expulsion, alleging vast corruption. That’s when he first called her “Nicole MallioStockTips,” saying she was “a dirty dishonorable swamp creature selling the American people down a river for her own benefit.” Good times with what sounds like great people!

Santos is facing serious election and financial fraud charges himself, and told Kramer that a plea deal is not off the table. Santos’ trial is set for September 2024, but CBS is reporting that the Department of Justice will be trying to get Santos’ trial moved up to May 2024. Life comes at you fast!

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

James Comer

Comer's Latest Biden 'Bombshell' Proves To Be A Ludicrous Dud

Rep. James Comer (R-LA) put a considerable amount of product in his hair Monday before recording a video claiming to have new smoking-gun evidence of President Joe Biden’s corruption. Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, dramatically announced that “Hunter Biden's legal team and the White House's media allies claim Hunter's corporate entities never made payments directly to Joe Biden. We can officially add this latest talking point to the list of lies. Today, the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden's business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.”

Sounds devastating. Right-wing media outlets excitedly pushed out the details, specifically that Hunter Biden set up “recurring payments” of $1,380 in late 2018. Besides being an extraordinarily small amount of money in the grand scheme of corruption, the thinnest digging revealed that Joe Biden was not president in 2018. In fact, deeper investigation reveals that Biden wasn’t even in any political office at the time!

Receipts were then posted that revealed Hunter Biden was paying his father back for helping to cover car payments while he was in between jobs. The three monthly payments totaled $4,140.

Selling out our country for three monthly payments of $1,380, eh? Comer’s list of embarrassments and Rep. Jim Jordan’s disastrous failure of an impeachment inquiry continue to float about as high as a whoopee cushion filled with water. In fact, every single smoking gun these guys announce seems to prove that President Joe Biden has been a very supportive father. He sure hasn’t helped his son-in-law get $2 billion in Saudi money, but we all can’t be that good at “winning.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

DeSantis vs. Newsom

Watch DeSantis When He Realizes Newsom Is Whipping Him In Fox Debate (VIDEO)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ill-fated candidacy received a series of body shots Thursday night as California Gov. Gavin Newsom took the Republican to the mat repeatedly during a Fox News’ moderated debate.

One particularly devastating moment was an exchange about immigration when Newsom obliterated DeSantis’ supposed bona fides on the subject. Newsom began by pointing out DeSantis’ changing position on the matter, then laid bare just how grotesque a person the Florida governor truly is.

”The last guy [DeSantis] you want to talk to on immigration. Your immigration policy can best be described as a governor from the state of Florida going into another state, the state of Texas; lying to migrants, promising them jobs and housing, sending them to an island, Martha's Vineyard; and then sending them to a parking lot in Sacramento, California.I met with those migrants that you lied to, under false pretense. That kind of gamesmanship, using human beings as pawns, I think, is disqualifying. So again, a guy who stands here who's been out on the Republican debate stage, saying, well, he's going to be tough, he's going to shoot people with backpacks, and that he has a strategy to potentially even invade our second-largest trading partner, Mexico; that has a record of supporting amnesty and supporting reforms under the Obama administration, is the last guy who should be standing on stage talking about the issue of immigration reform tonight.

Enjoy.

And if you’d like to watch a shorter edit that highlights how hilariously uncomfortable DeSantis is with the eloquent recitation of his monstrous immigration policies, enjoy this clip.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Ryan Fournier

Students For Trump Founder Charged In Assault On Woman With Firearm

Ryan Fournier, the co-founder of the North Carolina-based Students for Trump, has been charged with two counts of assault. According to a magistrate’s order filed in the Johnston County District Court, Fournier is accused of “grabbing [his girlfriend’s] right arm and striking her in the forehead with a firearm.” Fornier, who is 27, was reportedly released on the same day as his arrest, Nov. 21, posting a $2,500 bond. A hearing is scheduled for December 18.

One wonders if The Washington Post’s editorial board will add this to its hand-wringing about right-wing men not being able to attract female partners.

Fournier began Students for Trump in 2016 along with fellow Campbell University student John Lambert, but it quickly became apparent that the two were running a real shady operation. In 2018, The Daily Beastreported that the young MAGA group was ignoring requests from federal investigators to explain how their operation ran and was funded, leading many to believe the organization was violating federal election laws.

It turned out that Lambert was breaking more than just election laws—he was an epic fraud. In 2021, at the age of 25, Lambert was sentenced to 13 months in prison for being what the sentencing judge described as a “cold-blooded fraudster.” According to The Daily Beast, Fournier was involved in the fraudulent scheme but ratted out Lambert when the feds confronted him in 2018.

Fournier’s personal website refers to him as “Ryan Fournier. Commentator. Entrepreneur. Realist.” Apparently, it should also have something about being someone who allegedly uses firearms to assault women.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Cassidy Hutchinson

Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson: 'Everybody Vote For Biden'  (VIDEO)

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, spoke with Jen Psaki on MSNBC on Monday. Hutchinson was there to continue promoting her best-selling memoir, Enough, which is about the Trump administration’s incompetence and corruption.

Psaki used the memoir to ask questions about Trump’s very public attacks and their deleterious effect on the many potential witnesses in his various criminal and civil cases. Hutchinson said she had personally experienced that wrath: “The American people should not ever have to live in fear of retribution from a president of the United States, or a former president of the United States. A president is here and is elected to protect the people, not to incite violence on those people.”

When Psaki asked Hutchinson who she was voting for in a race between President Joe Biden and Trump, Hutchinson gave this very stark response:

I will say that my door is completely shut to voting for Donald Trump, and the only reason that I will not endorse a candidate right now is because I still am hopeful that Donald Trump does not end up being the nominee next year.

I think our country will be in a much better place overall, not just for myself, but the ticket and the future of our country will be. But what I will say, too, though, is I think everybody should vote for Joe Biden if they want our democracy to survive.

Hutchinson has been a steady, relatively unimpeachable source for behind the scenes information on the Trump administration. Many of her claims have been supported by others, even Trump himself. The book has been doing very good numbers as we go into the holiday season. Whether or not there’s a slice of a demographic that buys books and also votes for Trump remains a mystery, but if just a few people get the message, that’s a few more votes going towards continuing our democracy.

Republicans are challenging labor leaders to fights and allegedly physically assaulting one another. Donald Trump says he will abolish reproductive rights entirely and is openly calling for the extermination of his detractors, referring to them as “vermin” on Veterans Day. The Republican Party has emerged from its corruption cocoon as a full-blown fascist movement.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Markwayne Mullin

GOP Senator Challenges Teamster Leader To Fistfight -- During Senate Hearing (VIDEO)

On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chaired a Senate committee hearing titled “Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families.” Labor representatives gave testimony, including Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.

At the hearing, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a multimillionaire former business owner, tried to pick a fight with O’Brien. No, not a figurative fight—a literal fight. Instead of using the committee’s time to help improve workers’ lives, Mullin read tweets O’Brien wrote about the senator and then challenged the Teamsters president to fight him right there in the committee hearing room.

It was ridiculous. After Mullin stood up—yes, he stood up—Sanders told him, “Sit down! No, you’re a United States senator,” while O’Brien called Mullin a “clown” and wondered out loud if this was how the senator from Oklahoma dealt with every disagreement. During the exchange, the teamsters sitting behind O’Brien laughed at Mullin’s ludicrous bit of political theater.

The exchange went on with Mullin still trying to turn his time into a fight promo (you can watch at the link below), and O’Brien reminding Mullin that he had the opportunity to be one of the most “influential people in the country but you’re focused on debate that isn’t even relevant. You’re an embarrassment. An embarrassment.” The truth clearly continues to hurt Mullin.

The bad blood goes back to March, when the two men got into a heated argument during another Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing. O’Brien called out Mullin’s anti-labor “tough guy” schtick and the two exchanged barbs. Mullin came out looking pretty pathetic. O’Brien continued besmirching Mullin’s not-great name on social media, and in June, Mullin challenged O’Brien to a MMA-style fight for charity.

Mullin’s “self-made” business was originally his father’s, which he took over when his father got ill. Still, there are many questions about how he got so gosh-darned rich, as The New Republic reported earlier this year:

Mullin himself warrants his own level of scrutiny as to whether he is an “honest” millionaire. The Oklahoma Republican was already swimming in assets worth up to $29.9 million in 2020. The following year, his net worthexploded to be anywhere between $31.6 million and a gargantuan $75.6 million. Mullin received some $1.4 million in federal PPP loans and was among the members of Congress who helped tank the TRUTH Act, which would have required public disclosure of companies receiving those relief funds.

Pathetic.

And there’s always a tweet with guys like this.

You can watch the rest of the exchange here, at around the 1:41:00 mark.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

'Groping Vaping Boebert': Margie's Big Social Media Meltdown

On October 26, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a resolution to have Congress censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, falsely claiming Tlaib’s pro-Palestinian statements at a peace protest amounted to “leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex.” On Wednesday, 23 House Republicans joined Democrats to block Greene’s resolution, 222 to 186.

Unhappy with this outcome, Greene attacked these and other Republicans on X (formerly Twitter). First, she posted a list of the 23 Republicans who voted to block her resolution, writing, “List of feckless Republicans that voted WITH Democrats to table my censure resolution against Rashida Tlaib. This is why Republicans NEVER do anything to stop the communists [sic] Democrats or ever hold anyone accountable!! PATHETIC.” The extra exclamation point is for extra exclamation!!

“Conservatives on this list hide behind excuses with their white wigs on and quote the constitution,” she said, adding, “They are clutching their pearls because I called Oct 18th an insurrection.” The latter comment was aimed at Republican Chip Roy, who said he voted against the resolution because of how Greene described Tlaib’s actions.

Greene lit into Roy, writing, “Oh shut up Colonel Sander, you're not even from Texas, more like the DMV.” Greene, who was recently kicked out of the Freedom Caucus, added, “You voted to kick me out of the freedom caucus, but keep CNN wannabe Ken Buck and vaping groping Lauren Boebert and you voted with the Democrats to protect Terrorist Tlaib. You hate Trump, certified Biden's election, and could care less about J6 defendants being persecuted.”

On Thursday, Roy told The Hill, “Tell her to go chase so-called Jewish space lasers if she wants to spend time on that sort of thing.” Teehee!

Laura Loomer, who is sort of just another version of Greene, stepped into the fray, calling both Greene and Roy “showboaters.” Loomer added, “Both of you are useless. No need to fight amongst yourselves to get [t]he trophy prize of ‘biggest gaslighter sell out’ in Congress. You both have sold the American people out. Same with Hoebert.”

During the writing of this story, Greene posted a screenshot of a Google search for the definition of “feckless.” She followed that up by posting another shot of her “Liberty Score” showing she has an “A” rating for being conservative. One good thing about the GOP fighting within itself is that Americans get to really see what craven and vapid politicians they are.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

New Speaker's Spouse Marketed Quack 'Therapy' To Cure Homosexuality

New Speaker's Spouse Marketed Quack 'Therapy' To Cure Homosexuality

Kelly Johnson, the wife of the newly elected speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, runs a Christian counseling business affiliated with some very homophobic beliefs. According to HuffPost, Kelly Johnson’s Onward Christian Counseling Services has a business document breaking down its offensive understandings of the world, placing people who are gay and transgender in the same categories as sex with animals: “We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography, or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.”

On top of this, Business Insiderreports that Kelly Johnson “advertised a specialty in temperament therapy.” Temperament therapy is based on “Creation Therapy,” which was created by Christian counselors Richard and Phyllis Arno. The basic idea behind these therapies is that people are born as one of five types: Melancholy, Choleric, Sanguine, Supine, and Phlegmatic. The Arnos based this idea on work by controversial right-wing fundamentalist Rev. Tim LaHaye, a co-author of the popular and anxiety-producing Left Behind apocalypse novels. LaHaye, in turn, lifted his un-Christian-like idea of temperaments from Hippocrates.

The fact that ancient Greek pseudoscience continues to exist in modern-day fundamentalist Christian counseling is not particularly shocking. The idea that fundamentalists, unable to manage the reality around them with their acutely myopic understanding of Scripture, might try and apply some of those medical practices to psychology is also unsurprising.

After her husband became speaker, Kelly Johnson’s business website became inaccessible. It is hard to say how much her counseling practice veers into the pseudoscience of temperament theory, but the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine has this “memory” of the website dating to Oct. 26—the day after her husband was elected speaker—and her bio on the leadership page reads as such:

Kelly L. Johnson is a Licensed Pastoral Counselor, a Certified Temperament Counselor, Professional Clinical Member of the National Christian Counselors Association, President of Onward Christian Counseling Services, LLC, and CEO of Onward Christian Education Services, Inc.

Business Insider reports that neither Johnson nor the organization returned their requests for comment, but the organization does advise its counselors to hold malpractice insurance—so that’s modern.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.