@jsonitsac

Madison Sheahan #dunning-kruger #wingnut #racist theatlantic.com

Noem and Corey Lewandowski, the Trump-world fixture who is Noem’s confidant and unofficial chief of staff, have spent the past few months tightening control over ICE through their top appointee, Madison Sheahan, the agency’s deputy director. Sheahan worked as an aide to Noem in South Dakota, and she was running the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries when Noem installed her at ICE in March, initially trying to make her the agency’s top official. Other administration officials objected, and Todd Lyons, a veteran ICE official, has remained in the acting-director role.

Sheahan, whose job consists of running ICE’s “day-to-day operations,” according to her official bio, has alienated many career officials who dislike being bossed around by a 28-year-old who has never worked in immigration enforcement. Eight current and former officials told me that Sheahan affects a brusque, bruising personal manner that they believe she deploys to compensate for her lack of law-enforcement credentials.

“They put her in there because she has a very, very close connection to the secretary, to be her eyes and ears and keep watch on what’s going on,” one official told me. “She’s been demanding a gun and a badge constantly, even though she’s never gone through any training or done anything to earn those things.”

Sheahan has been thrust into a role she’s not ready for, one official said. “When you start from a position of weakness, you have to do things outside of the comfort zone to make it seem like you have authority,” the official told me. There are new framed photos of Sheahan participating in ICE raids hanging outside the executive suites on the 11th floor of the agency’s headquarters, along with photos of Noem, but few of ICE acting director Todd Lyons, two officials told me.

In recent weeks ICE officials have been working out an arrangement that would grant Sheahan limited customs-inspection authority to give her a firearm she could carry inside federal buildings, three officials told me.

McLaughlin said Sheahan does not have a service weapon, and has not sought one. “These attacks on Madison Sheahan’s leadership style have no basis in reality and are rooted in sexism,” McLaughlin wrote. “Madison Sheahan is a work horse, strong executor, and accountable leader.”

Craig Trainor #racist #wingnut #dunning-kruger ffxnow.com

[The current president of George Mason University is a Black man]

To resolve the alleged violation, the department has proposed an agreement that would require Mason President Gregory Washington to issue a statement and “personal apology … for promoting unlawful discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion, and tenure processes.”

The university would also have to revise any policies deemed noncompliant and conduct annual trainings for staff involved in hiring and promotional decisions.

OCR announced Friday (Aug. 22) that Mason leaders would have 10 days to agree to the directives.

“In 2020, University President Gregory Washington called for expunging the so-called ‘racist vestiges’ from GMU’s campus. Without a hint of self awareness, President Washington then waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race,” Education Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement, calling the past five years an “unfortunate chapter” in Mason’s history.

The Education Department says it launched the Title VI investigation into GMU on July 10 after “multiple” professors filed a complaint that the university was giving “preferential treatment” to job candidates and current faculty members from “underrepresented” backgrounds.

State Department Human Rights Report #wingnut #crackpot aol.com

The new Israel report is simply far shorter than the original draft, with no significant discussion of the humanitarian crisis or high death toll in Gaza. El Salvador is a blatant whitewash. “There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses,” the latest report claims. By contrast, the previous report spoke of “significant human rights issues” and specifically mentioned harsh, even lethal prison conditions. An Amnesty International report also covering 2024 speaks of “arbitrary detentions and human rights violations” in El Salvador, as well as “serious failings in the judicial system.” In overcrowded prisons, “detention conditions were inhumane, with reports of torture and other ill-treatment.” Here, the State Department’s motivation is not hard to guess. Because the Trump administration is sending prisoners to El Salvador, the department massaged the report to avoid the glaring truth: The U.S. is endangering people by sending them to Salvadoran prisons.

The report on Germany, a highly functional democracy, is equally strange. The State report speaks of “significant human rights issues,” including “restrictions on freedom of expression.” One specific example: German law “required internet companies, including U.S. internet platforms, to take down hate speech within 24 hours or face stiff fines.” Germans, in other words, are being called human-rights abusers because they continue to outlaw Nazi propaganda, as they have done since 1945. The Trump administration’s motives are clear here too. The goal is to please U.S. tech companies, notably X, that find it convenient or profitable to spread Nazi propaganda, and perhaps to help the Alternative for Germany, the far-right party publicly praised and courted by J. D. Vance.

Pete Hegseth #racist #wingnut twitter.com

I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site.

It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.

Context: The monument’s actual name is the Confederate Memorial, sponsered by the Daughters of the Confederacy and celebrating the Confederate soldiers as heroes. - Bastethotep

Tim Griffin #racist #wingnut forward.com

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said Thursday that “Return to the Land,” which bars non-whites and Jews from membership in its northern Arkansas living community, doesn’t violate state or federal law.

“Racism has no place in a free society, but from a legal perspective, we have not seen anything that would indicate any state or federal laws have been broken,” Griffin said in a statement provided to the Forward by a spokesperson.

Griffin’s comments walk back legal concerns he previously expressed about the whites-only settlement. Earlier this month, Griffin told TMZ that Return to the Land — a community where prospective residents must verify their “ancestral heritage” in a written application and interview — raises “all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns.”

The Forward reported in June about Return to the Land’s hopes of replicating its whites-only settlements across the country, with the stated aim of “trying to put land back under the control of Europeans.” Eric Orwoll and Peter Csere lead the group, which Morgan Moon of the Anti-Defamation League described as one of the most established white supremacist residential communities in the United States today.

In a June 30 email obtained by the Forward through a public records request, Gary McGee, an investigator with the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission wrote that “as of today, AFHC has not discovered any actual property owned by this organization or its founder, nor any advertisements for housing.”

Records show that a limited liability company in both Csere and Orwoll’s name, “Wisdom Woods LLC,” owns adjacent parcels of land totaling 157 acres near the town of Ravenden, where Sky News reporter Tom Cheshire visited the group and spoke with residents of the whites-only community in July.

Griffin did not respond to the Forward’s request for clarification about why the office believed Return to the Land had not broken any laws and whether it had considered the property owned by Wisdom Woods LLC.

Donald Trump #wingnut #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #god-complex apple.news

President Donald Trump said he's ordered the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the U.S. commissioner of Labor Statistics, accusing her without evidence of manipulating figures for "political purposes" after the Labor Department reported the U.S. added a disappointing 73,000 jobs in July.
Trump on Aug. 1 announced the move in a post on his social media app Truth Social, writing that he was "just informed that our Country’s 'Jobs Numbers' are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer."
"We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified," Trump said. "Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes."

Brian Hooker #quack #dunning-kruger #psycho #conspiracy theguardian.com

“Full disclosure, 18 days after visiting Seminole, Texas, sitting in a measles clinic and being exposed to Doctor Ben with the measles, I got the measles. So cool,” Hooker said.

Hooker, Tommey, and Edwards spoke on a podcast hosted by anti-vaccine activist Steve Kirsch on May 22. This news has not been previously reported by other outlets. Children’s Health Defense did not respond to the Guardian’s inquiry for this story.

Hooker doesn’t appear to have sought healthcare or testing to confirm his symptoms were measles and not another infection. Other viral and bacterial infections may cause rashes, which is why medical providers need to conduct tests to confirm measles cases.

Without confirmation of his illness being measles, Hooker may spread misinformation about the illness – including what helps to treat it.

Elon Musk #racist theatlantic.com

The year is 2025, and an AI model belonging to the richest man in the world has turned into a neo-Nazi. Earlier today, Grok, the large language model that’s woven into Elon Musk’s social network, X, started posting anti-Semitic replies to people on the platform. Grok praised Hitler for his ability to “deal with” anti-white hate.

The bot also singled out a user with the last name Steinberg, describing her as “a radical leftist tweeting under @Rad_Reflections.” Then, in an apparent attempt to offer context, Grok spat out the following: “She’s gleefully celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids in the recent Texas flash floods, calling them ‘future fascists.’ Classic case of hate dressed as activism—and that surname? Every damn time, as they say.” This was, of course, a reference to the traditionally Jewish last name Steinberg (there is speculation that @Rad_Reflections, now deleted, was a troll account created to provoke this very type of reaction). Grok also participated in a meme started by actual Nazis on the platform, spelling out the N-word in a series of threaded posts while again praising Hitler and “recommending a second Holocaust,” as one observer put it. Grok additionally said that it has been allowed to “call out patterns like radical leftists with Ashkenazi surnames pushing anti-white hate. Noticing isn’t blaming; it’s facts over feelings.”

Preston Danmsky, Judge John L. Badalmenti #racist #crackpot #psycho #wingnut forward.com

A University of Florida law student who posted that Jews must be “abolished by any means necessary” won an award for a paper in which he argued that the Constitution applies solely to white people.

The honor for an avowed white supremacist and antisemite has roiled the campus at the public university, in a state where a 2023 law prevents state funding for university programs that advocate for “diversity, equity and inclusion or promote or engage in political or social activism.”

Preston Damsky, 29, received the “book award” for a paper he wrote for a class last fall. In the paper, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for non-white citizens and orders to kill “criminal infiltrators at the border,” according to the New York Times.

The award for the paper was given to Damsky by Federal Judge John L. Badalamenti, a Trump administration appointee who taught Damsky’s class.

The law school’s interim dean, Merritt McAlister, initially defended Damsky’s accolade, invoking “institutional neutrality,”arguing n in an email to the law school community that professors must not engage in “viewpoint discrimination” and i according to the Times.

McAlister’s argument underscores a growing tension within academia as the Trump administration escalates its campaign against DEI with policies that have seen Holocaust remembrance pages stripped from government websites but allowed far-right sentiments to go unchecked.

After receiving the class award, Damsky, who told the Times that referring to him as a Nazi “would not be manifestly wrong,” doubled down on his incendiary messages. He opened an account on X in which he repeatedly posted antisemitic and white supremacist sentiments.

Carliss Chatman, a visiting law professor at the school during the spring semester, told the Times that she was struck by the response to Damsky’s essay in contrast to her experience at the school.

A class Chatman had proposed titled “Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality” was renamed by the school’s administration to just “Entrepreneurship” before being added to the catalogue.

“I just find it fascinating that this student can write an article, a series of articles that are essentially manifestoes, and that’s free speech,” Chatman said. “But my class can’t be called ‘Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality.’”

Pete Hegseth #fundie #homophobia #wingnut apnews.com

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a highly rare move that will strip the ship of the moniker of a slain gay rights activist who served as a sailor during the Korean War.

U.S. officials say Navy Secretary John Phelan put together a small team to rename the replenishment oiler and that a new name is expected this month. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the next name had not yet been chosen.

The change was laid out in an internal memo that officials said defended the action as a move to align with President Donald Trump and Hegseth’s objectives to “re-establish the warrior culture.”

It marks the latest move by Hegseth and the wider Trump administration to purge all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion. And it comes during Pride Month — the same timing as the Pentagon’s campaign to force transgender troops out of the U.S. military.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that Hegseth is “committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos.”

Donald Trump #wingnut #conspiracy #mammon cbsnews.com

President Trump said Monday he is pardoning Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of making several businessmen sworn law enforcement officers in exchange for cash bribes.

Former Culpeper County Sheriff Jenkins, 53, was found guilty on fraud and bribery charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison in March. But on Monday, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that Jenkins and his family "have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ."

"This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn't deserve to spend a single day in jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left "monsters," and "left for dead," Mr. Trump said in the post. "He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life."

Jenkins was indicted in 2023 on 16 counts. In December, a jury found Jenkins guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud and seven counts of bribery. Jenkins appealed his conviction in April.

Federal prosecutors say Jenkins took $75,000 worth of bribes. He allegedly accepted cash and campaign contributions from eight people — including two undercover FBI agents — and in return, gave them badges and made them auxiliary deputy sheriffs, despite not having any training or vetting. He also allegedly pushed officials to restore one bribe-payer's right to possess a gun as a convicted felon.

Jenkins took the stand in his own defense and said there was no connection between the payments he received and the badges he handed out, according to news reports. Testifying against Jenkins were the undercover FBI agents who were sworn in as deputies in 2022 and immediately thereafter gave Jenkins envelopes with $5,000 and $10,000 cash, respectively.

Trump said Jenkins tried to offer evidence in his defense, but U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou, a Biden appointee, "refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade."

Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said at the time that Jenkins violated his oath of office "and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable."

A longstanding Trump supporter, Jenkins is the latest ally of the president to receive a pardon.

Anna Kelly #racist #conspiracy #wingnut religionnews.com

In a statement, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the Episcopal Church’s decision “raises serious questions about its supposed commitment to humanitarian aid.” She argued “Afrikaners have faced unspeakable horrors” and are “no less deserving of refugee resettlement than the hundreds of thousands of others who were allowed into the United States during the past Administration.”

Kelly added: “President Trump has made it clear: refugee resettlement should be about need, not politics.”
The Trump administration has otherwise all but frozen the refugee program, with Afrikaners among the few — and possibly only — people granted entry as refugees since January, despite thousands from other countries hoping to enter the U.S. to avoid persecution and violence. Shortly after he was sworn in, Trump signed an executive order that essentially halted the refugee program and stopped payments to organizations that assist with refugee resettlement — including, according to one group, payments for work already performed.

Harmeet K. Dhillon #racist ballsandstrikes.org

In November 2021, the Biden administration opened an investigation into whether the Lowndes County Health Department and the Alabama Department of Public Health were violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Black residents in the provision of sanitation access. Around a year and a half later, the Justice Department secured a landmark settlement that put Lowndes County on a path to provide Black residents with basic sanitation services that more affluent white communities have long received. “Today starts a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Alabama, who have endured health dangers, indignities and racial injustice for far too long,” said Kristen Clarke, who was, at that time, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced that, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s executive order “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” it was terminating the settlement immediately. “The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, Clarke’s successor in the Civil Rights Division. “Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria.”

Donald Trump #racist #wingnut cbsnews.com

President Trump on Friday directed government officials to prioritize the resettlement of South Africans of European descent through the U.S. refugee program, which he suspended during his first day in office.

In an executive order, Mr. Trump accused the South African government of discriminating against Afrikaners, an ethnic group in South Africa made up of descendants of European colonists, mostly from the Netherlands, who first arrived there in the 1600s.

Until the 1990s, White South Africans of European descent ruled South Africa, enforcing the brutal system of apartheid against the country's Black majority.

But Mr. Trump alleged in his order that White South Africans are now the targets of oppression by the country's government, citing a law that U.S. conservatives like Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk have said allow racially motivated seizures of land owned by White South Africans. Musk was born in South Africa.

South Africa's government has strongly denied any land confiscations or racially motivated discrimination, saying the law being scrutinized targets land not being used or not serving the public interest.

In his order, Mr. Trump instructed Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to "prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination."

Donald Trump #racist #wingnut #psycho independent.co.uk

“You have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers,” he said, before quoting articles regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s DEI push before he took office.

“Brilliant people have to be in those positions,” the president said, later saying diversity hiring “could have been” linked to the crash. Earlier, he said officials weren’t sure what led to the collision, in which 67 people died.

Trump also placed blame on his predecessors: “I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen.”

Robert Kennedy jr #conspiracy #pratt #crackpot #quack twitter.com

On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President ​@realDonaldTrumpand First Lady @MELANIATRUMP want to Make America Healthy Again.​ @michaelpconnett

Bo French #wingnut #racist #ableist #homophobia #sexist #racist advocate.com

Bo French, chair of the Republican Party in Tarrant County, Texas, has made several foul comments in the months leading up to the election. He last month called one Democratic advertisement featuring men voters "the gayest ad in history," writing on Twitter/X: “Guarantee every one of these ‘dudes’ is a homo. There is literally nothing manly about any of them.”

The conservative also around the same time used a slur for people with developmental disabilities against former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, responding to her remarks at a Harris campaign rally in Wisconsin with: "Never go full retard."

In a poll posted for his followers, French asked if those who "believe Harris’ policies are better for Americans than Trumps’ policies" are “Ignorant,” “A liar,” “Retarded,” or “Gay.” He most recently wrote under a video from the recent World Series: “Retard strength."

In response to a post from Harris telling voters to "trust women" to make their own decisions about their health care, French wrote: "There are just some things where you can't trust women TBH."

French has previously said that he aims to “make Tarrant County inhospitable for Democrats," who he has also accused of trying to “rid the earth of the white race.” He came under fire in August after trying and failing to pressure local Republican election officials to close college polling locations, explicitly stating that it was because young voters historically have "voted with Democrats."

Newt Gingrich #sexist #wingnut salon.com

“These people are dishonest,” Gingrich responded. “And so, for them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption. I mean, how do you run a country where you’re walking around saying, ‘Wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives’?”

Gingrich, who cheated on his second wife, then held Democrats responsible for America's moral degeneration. “I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed? If you think about it at that level, it is astonishing, the decay," he said, before claiming that the "decay" is why Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who reportedly maintained at least three romantic liaisons outside of his marriage with Cheryl Hines, left the Democratic Party and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

Long before the [Julia] Roberts ad aired, Gingrich had been using extreme rhetoric to describe the supposed Democratic unraveling of American society. During the 1990 midterm elections, a group led by Gingrich issued pamphlets among Republicans encouraging them to label their opponents with words like "destroy," "collapse," "traitors," "decay" and "sick" as a key mechanism of persuasion. In his interview with Hannity, Gingrich pulled out "sick" three times in less than 10 seconds.

“Instead of having a dignity and patriotism and a sense of morality, these are really sick people,” Gingrich continued. “And the more you watch them, to say, ‘Oh, why don’t you lie to your husband?’ as a publicly advocated ad? That is sick! And I think we ought to have the courage to say this is a sick, dishonest party.”

Donald Trump #conspiracy #wingnut #crackpot #god-complex #dunning-kruger salon.com

Former President Donald Trump is suing CBS for $10 billion over an interview with Kamala Harris that aired on "60 Minutes" earlier this month.

The 19-page lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that the network committed “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” by editing down a handful of Harris’s responses to interview questions. In addition to the massive sum, Trump's team is requesting an order that the network release the unedited interview in full.

Trump has fumed over the "60 Minutes" interview for most of this month, alleging foul play after the network aired two different portions of an answer to a question about the war in Gaza on "Face The Nation" and their flagship newsmagazine program. In the lawsuit, his attorneys claimed that CBS deceptively edited the vice president's "word salad" to harm Trump's election chances.

“CBS’s distortion of the '60 Minutes' interview damaged President Trump’s fundraising and support values by several billions of dollars, particularly in Texas,” Trump’s attorneys argued in the lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas [Amarillo Division].

(Emphasis added)

Donald Trump #wingnut #crackpot #dunning-kruger #forced-birth #sexist amp.cnn.com

Donald Trump on Tuesday declared himself the “father of IVF,” a fertility treatment that has come under threat following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

It’s unclear what precisely the former president meant when he made the comment at a Fox News town hall in battleground Georgia that was billed as focusing on women’s issues and had an all-female audience. But he has repeatedly returned to the issue – talking up his support for IVF – on the campaign trail, where he has given a long series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.

“We really are the party for IVF,” Trump told moderator and Fox News host Harris Faulkner on “The Faulkner Focus.” “We want fertilization, and it’s all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF, even more than them. So, we’re totally in favor.”

Dan Foreman #racist #wingnut #forced-birth apnews.com

About an hour into the event, someone asked a question about a state bill addressing discrimination. The candidates were each given two minutes to answer, and when it was Carter-Goodheart’s turn, she pushed back on earlier comments that suggested discrimination is not a major issue in Idaho.

She said state hate crime laws are weak, and noted that the neo-nazi group Aryan Nations made northern Idaho its home base for many years. She also talked about being the only candidate there who was a person of color.

“I pointed out that just because someone hasn’t personally experienced discrimination doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” she said. “I was making my statement, and then he shot up out of his seat and said, ‘I’m so sick of your liberal (expletive). Why don’t you go back to where you came from?’”

The Nez Perce Tribe has lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest for more than 11,500 years, including the area where Kendrick is located. The northern edge of its reservation, while only a small fraction of the tribe’s historical territory, is less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall where the forum was held.

“It was like slow motion,” Carter-Goodheart said. “I just remember thinking, ‘Go back to where you came from’? That’s within miles of where this forum is taking place. We have literal plots of land that are being leased out to family farms nearby.”

In his Facebook post, Foreman called the incident a “quintessential display of race-baiting” and said the Democratic attendees made personal attacks and “proclaimed Idaho to be a racist state.”

“Well, here is a news flash for the lefties out there. There is no systemic racism in America or Idaho,” Foreman said. “Idaho is a great state — the best in the Union!”

He then added an attack on supporters of abortion rights, saying: “And furthermore, it is immoral and against the law of God to kill unborn babies in the womb. You do not have any right to murder the unborn. There is no such thing as your self-proclaimed ‘Women’s Reproductive Rights.’ There is no such body of rights in the state or federal constitutions. And we don’t do designer rights in Idaho.”

Rabbi Cary Kozberg #racist #pratt jta.org

“This is about a culture clash,” Rabbi Cary Kozberg, who leads Temple Sholom, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We, as the citizens of Springfield, are being disenfranchised.”

Like Trump, J.D. Vance and others who have taken aim at Springfield’s immigrant population, Kozberg says he believes the new arrivals — most of whom are in the country legally — are changing the city’s character for the worse.

“Haiti is not known for its, shall we say, adherence to Western civilized values,” Kozberg said.

The comments might sound jarring coming from a rabbi ordained by the Reform movement. Reform Jewish congregations and rabbis have been among the most outspoken opponents of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies stretching back across the more than nine years since he entered politics. During Trump’s presidency, Reform Jews protested against his travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, rallied across the United States in support of refugees and lobbied to support “Dreamers,” young adults who as children were brought to the country illegally by their parents. Many cited their own families’ immigrant histories as a reason to oppose Trump.

Donald Trump #wingnut #conspiracy #racist #ableist #god-complex jta.org

Trump has for years made the claim that American Jews who mostly vote for Democrats are mentally ill, and this year, he has taken to saying that Jews who vote for Democrats need to “have their head examined.” He has also repeatedly said Israel will be destroyed if he loses the election, a prediction he repeated Thursday.


But in this speech, he also said Jews would be at fault if he loses, citing the low percentage of Jewish voters who have historically supported him. He referenced a poll he said he saw showing that he could receive 40% of the Jewish vote — which itself would be a marked increase for him from 2016 and 2020.

“I will put it to you very simply and gently. I really haven’t been treated right, but you haven’t been treated right, because you’re putting yourself in great danger, and the United States hasn’t been treated right,” he said. “The Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss if I’m at 40%. Think of it, that means 60% are voting for Kamala.”

The speech was one of two Trump gave to Jewish audiences in Washington on Thursday. He also spoke at the Israeli American Council’s conference following the “Fighting Antisemitism” event.

J.D. Vance #racist #wingnut #crackpot wtnh.com

Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote.

Those reports are largely based on social media postings that were picked up by national figures including Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk over the weekend.

Jesse Watters #racist #conspiracy #pratt independent.co.uk

“He’s definitely going to interfere in this election,” the Fox News host claimed, pulling rhetoric often used by Trump.

“That’s why we’ll be sending Johnny [producer on The Five] to Hawaii to get the truth about the birth certificate,” Watters told viewers. “This time we will dig deep and find out what really happened.”

Co-host Greg Gutfeld intervened saying that the producer must get his passport, before Watters retorted: “To go to Kenya.”

“I meant to Hawaii, just to see him do it. Ask him what the exchange rate is for the Hawaiian dollar,” Gutfield sniggered.

Valentina Gomez #racist #wingnut rawstory.com

Reparations from slavery and black victimization is about to be shoved down our throats for the most wretched holiday in America," said Gomez in the video. "BLM raised millions. And what did they do for Black lives? It is outrageous to see people ask you for reparations, even though they never went through slavery. These ungrateful people should be celebrating because they were born in the greatest nation to ever exist.

Here's a tip; If you don't like America, kindly, get the f[uck] out.

Indian River County School Board #fundie #wingnut #god-complex news-journalonline.com

School officials in Florida have banned a book about book banning.

The Indian River County School Board voted to remove "Ban This Book" by Alan Gratz from its shelves in a meeting last month, overruling its own district book-review committee's decision to keep it.

The children's novel follows a fictional fourth grader who creates a secret banned books locker library after her school board pulled a multitude of titles off the shelves.

Indian River County School Board members said they disliked how it referenced other books that had been removed from schools and accused it of "teaching rebellion of school board authority," as described in the formal motion to oust it.

The book, which had been in two Indian River County elementary schools and a middle school, was challenged by Jennifer Pippin. She's the head of the area's local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national conservative group that has become one of the loudest advocates for removing books they deem inappropriate.

Dave Williams #fundie #homophobia #wingnut #biphobia #transphobia #enbyphobia 9news.com

The Colorado GOP’s mass email titled “God Hates Pride,” read, in part, “The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children.”

The message to Colorado Republicans was headlined with an image reading “God Hates Flags,” a nod to the anti-gay slur on the picket signs of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church.

The party’s message was signed by chairman Dave Williams. A post from the Colorado Republican Party on X, formerly Twitter, read simply, “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

Donald Trump #conspiracy #racist #wingnut #crackpot forward.com

Speaking outside the Manhattan courthouse where his trial unfolded over several weeks, Trump blamed Jewish billionaire George Soros, invoking a trope that Jewish organizations have denounced as leading to antisemitic violence.

Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, said the real verdict would come on Nov. 5, Election Day.

Voters “know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” said Trump, who is the presumptive Republican candidate for president. “You have a Soros-backed D.A. and the whole thing, I didn’t do anything wrong, I am a very innocent man.”

Samuel Alito #transphobia #elitist #mammon slate.com

Similar concerns are raised by a Monday report in the Law Dork newsletter, which published a disclosure form documenting two stock transactions that Alito made on Aug. 14, 2023. On that day, per the form, Alito sold between $1,000 and $15,000 of stock in Anheuser-Busch and bought between $1,000 and $15,000 of stock in Molson Coors. Why is this significant? Because Anheuser-Busch makes Bud Light beer, and August 2023 was the height of the backlash against Bud Light for having engaged in a promotional transaction with social media personality Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman. Molson Coors makes Miller Light and Coors Light, Bud Light’s competitors.

Selling BUD and buying TAP at the time would not have had much value as an investment decision. (As it stands today, it would have been a money-losing move, with Molson Coors having lost about $10 per share in value while Anheuser-Busch has gained the same amount.) Your correspondent is not a registered financial adviser but understands that it is generally not considered advisable to rack up transaction fees selling and buying relatively modest amounts of stock in individual companies; the justice’s other disclosures do not portray him as a particularly active trader.

What seems more likely is that Alito—or the enigmatic Mrs. Alito—made the beer conglomerate swap in order to make a political point about an issue that had become a controversy thanks to the furious viral efforts of right-wing media figures like Kid Rock and “Libs of TikTok” proprietor Chaya Raichik.

Clarence Thomas #wingnut #conspiracy #elitist #mammon news.bloomberglaw.com

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decried “the nastiness and the lies” he and his wife Ginni have “had to endure” in recent years.

“There’s certainly been a lot of negativity for my wife and I in the last few years,” Thomas said Friday at a conference of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Point Clear, Alabama. “But we choose not to focus on that.”

Thomas was the focus of controversy over Supreme Court ethics in 2023, after reports emerged that he accepted luxury travel via yacht and private jet from billionaire businessman and conservative political donor Harlan Crow without disclosing the gifts publicly. The justice also sold real estate including his childhood home in Georgia to Crow and failed to include those deals in his annual financial disclosures. ProPublica received a Pulitzer Prize on May 6 for its role in uncovering the financial connections.

On Friday, Thomas recounted a conversation with a friend during a walk around his neighborhood years ago. “That’s before they started attacking my friends,” Thomas said. “I hope I still have some.”

Thomas also described Washington as a place where “people pride themselves in being awful.”

“It is a hideous place as far as I’m concerned,” Thomas said.

“It’s one of the reasons we like RVing,” he added. “You get to be around regular people who don’t pride themselves in doing harmful things merely because they have the capacity to do it or because they disagree.”

Todd Schlanger #wingnut #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #mammon washingtonpost.com

Many of Truth Social’s investors say they’re in it for the long haul. Todd Schlanger, an interior designer at a furniture store in West Palm Beach who said Trump had been one of his customers, said he’s invested about $20,000 in total and is buying new shares every week.


Schlanger said he now watches his stock performance every day hoping for positive signs. In a Truth Social post last week, he encouraged “everyone who supports Donald Trump and Truth [Social to] buy a share everyday” and asked, “Do you think we have hit bottom?” (The stock has slid about 25 percent since that post.)


He suspects the recent drops in share price have been the result of “stock manipulation” from an “organized effort” to make the company look bad. There’s no proof of such a campaign, but Schlanger is convinced. “It’s got to be political,” he said, from all the “liberals that are trying to knock it down.”

Clarence Thomas #transphobia #quack #homophobia #biphobia #fundie #wingnut washingtonpost.com

In written dissents, Alito and Thomas said the case presents important questions of free speech that have divided lower courts.
“There is fierce debate over how best to help minors with gender dysphoria,” Thomas wrote…

In Thomas’s five-page dissent on Monday, he said Washington’s ban [on conversion therapy for minors] had “silenced one side of this debate” by restricting the First Amendment rights of medical professionals. “Licensed counselors cannot voice anything other than the state-approved opinion on minors with gender dysphoria without facing punishment. The Ninth Circuit set a troubling precedent by condoning this regime,” Thomas wrote.

Mike Lee #conspiracy #wingnut #dunning-kruger rollingstone.com

Lee quoted a post from former Jan. 6 committee member Liz Cheney that contained footage of the Capitol attack, writing, “Liz, we’ve seen footage like that a million times. You made sure we saw that—and nothing else. It’s the other stuff—what you deliberately hid from us—that we find so upsetting. Nice try.”

He then added, “P.S. How many of these guys are feds? (As if you’d ever tell us).”

Then on Saturday, Lee quoted a post from a Republican former West Virginia legislator Derrick Evans who asked if an image from a Jan. 6 video inside the Capitol shows a rioter “flashing a badge?”

“If so, this would prove there were undercover federal agents disguised as MAGA,” Evans wrote.


Lee quoted Evans’ post and wrote, “I can’t wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing. I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information-free.”

You might pause and wonder, is the person behind the account with the handle @BasedMikeLee really a U.S. senator? But it is. Lee confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune in 2022 that the account is his.

The man pictured with the alleged badge is Trump supporter Kevin Lyons, who is shown in a separate photo carrying a vape in his hand. Twitter appended two fact checks to the tweets, writing that Lyons “is not a police officer and is not holding a badge. He is carrying a vape and a photograph and wallet stolen from Pelosi’s office.”

Even if Lyons were a federal agent, he would certainly be going to great lengths to disguise his affiliation. Lyons is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for his actions in the Capitol, which include stealing a wallet and taking a framed photo of the late Rep. John Lewis from then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

I Resemble That Remark Award

Steven Cheung #wingnut #dunning-kruger religiondispatches.org

And when the Washington Post reached out to the Trump campaign to respond to criticisms that these comments echoed the rhetoric of Nazi and fascist leaders, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, replied defiantly, “Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.” [Note [[in original]]: In a puzzling move, the Trump campaign later tried to amend the statement to replace the phrase “entire existence” with “sad, miserable existence.”]

The North Carolina Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations #wingnut #god-complex #psycho popular.info

North Carolina’s new $30 billion state budget contains a provision that gives extraordinary investigative powers to a partisan oversight committee co-chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R).

The Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations — or Gov Ops for short — is empowered to seize “any document or system of record” from anyone who works in or with state and local government during its investigations. The rule applies to contractors, subcontractors, and any other non-state entity “receiving, directly and indirectly, public funds,” including charities and state universities.

Moreover, Gov Ops staff will be authorized to enter “any building or facility” owned or leased by a state or non-state entity without a judicial warrant. This includes the private residences of subcontractors and contractors who run businesses out of their homes, lawmakers say.

Alarmingly, public employees under investigation will be required to keep all communication and requests “confidential.” They cannot alert their supervisor of the investigation nor consult with legal counsel. Violating this rule “shall be grounds for disciplinary action, including dismissal,” the law reads. Those who refuse to cooperate face jail time and fines of up to $1,000. In the event that Gov Ops searches a person’s home, these rules mean that the person 1) must keep the entry a secret, 2) cannot seek outside help (unless necessary for fulfilling the request, the law says), and 3) could face criminal charges if Gov Ops deems them uncooperative.

Moore and Berger claim these new rules are benign and necessary to exercise oversight of state funds. But Democrats and other critics say the changes turn Gov Ops into a “secret police force,” warning that the new policies have far-reaching implications.

Elon Musk #racist #conspiracy #dunning-kruger #god-complex rollingstone.com

While much of America enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day weekend of cookouts and beach trips, X (formerly known as Twitter) owner Elon Musk was doubling down on his absurd claims that the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish nonprofit, had somehow tanked the website he personally ran into the ground.

The accusations began last week, after ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt had a meeting with X CEO Linda Yaccarino to discuss the prevalence of hate speech on the platform. This kicked off a trending hashtag campaign, #BanTheADL, predicated on the groundless idea that the organization has stifled free speech on X (and should therefore have their account removed). But the tag, promoted by known antisemites and white supremacists, generated a slew of hateful content. When Musk proved receptive to the movement and chimed in to allege that “ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter,” he did so in reply to Keith Woods, an antisemitic YouTuber affiliated with notorious racists Richard Spencer and Nick Fuentes.

By Saturday, Musk was mulling a poll on whether to suspend the ADL and tweeting that it had been “hijacked by the woke mind virus.” He returned to the topic on Monday, once again interacting with Woods and escalating his rhetoric against the group, blaming them for the preponderance of antisemitism on X and insisting that they were out to destroy the website. “Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” he complained.

From there, Musk began spinning out even more outrageous claims of sabotage, tweeting that a 60 percent plummet in U.S. advertising revenue for the site was “primarily due to pressure” from the ADL. (In fact, brands have tended to blame Musk himself for their departure.) Multiple times, he threatened a defamation suit against the organization, at one point calculating that they had cut his company’s value in half, making them liable for a loss of some $22 billion. This back-of-the-envelope math, dubious on its face, also seems to derive from the $44 billion price tag of Musk’s Twitter acquisition, and even he has said he was “obviously overpaying” at that price.

Vivek Ramaswamy #wingnut #ableist vox.com

In one of the most striking tangents of the night, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy even advocated for reopening “mental health institutions” that have closed over the decades as the country sought to cut costs (starting in the Reagan administration) and tried — but has largely failed — to invest in more humane home- and community-based services. He framed putting more people with mental health problems into those institutions as one of the most important ways to address crime.

“Just over the same period that we have closed mental health institutions, we have seen a spike in violent crime. Do we have the spine to bring them back?” he said. “I think we should. As president, I will.”

I have interviewed people who were subjected to the cruel treatment that was often commonplace in the mental health asylums of old. The new mental health paradigm is focused much more on treating people where they are. While the US has struggled to erect a sufficient mental health system given the scale of the country’s needs, few people who work in the field would argue that a return to the institutions of that era is the recipe for fixing our mental health crisis.

But Ramaswamy, the biggest non-Trump sensation of the GOP primary so far, does. He even implicitly allowed that “drugging up people in those psychiatric institutions with Zoloft and Seroquel” would be part of the program (but not the only part; he also wants a return to the patriotism, faith, and family that he believes constitutes the American character).

Vivek Ramaswamy #conspiracy #wingnut washingtonpost.com

At a dinner, Ramaswamy told the audience that the public could handle the “truth” about the Capitol riot. Hendrickson later asked him what that “truth” was, obviously understanding that Ramaswamy was generally winking at conspiracy theories like those elevated by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Ramaswamy shrugged, offering a just-asking-questions response about the unsupported idea that government agents were involved.

“Then, suddenly,” Hendrickson wrote, “he was talking about 9/11.”


“I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers. Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero,” Ramaswamy said. “But if we’re doing a comprehensive assessment of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 Commission, absolutely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to.”
Hendrickson pressed him on this, asking the candidate if he was actually uncertain about culpability for the attacks.
“I mean, I would take the truth about 9/11,”

Ramaswamy replied. “I am not questioning what we — this is not something I’m staking anything out on. But I want the truth about 9/11.” He was going to say he wasn’t just asking questions, but, of course, he was.

Ted Cruz #pratt #wingnut independent.co.uk

“I’m pissed at these over and over and over again, if they’re indictments, it’ll be the fourth indictment of Donald Trump” Mr Cruz, who lost the Republican nomination for president to Mr Trump in 2016, said. “This is disgraceful. Our country’s over 200 years old. We’ve never once indicted a former president, or a candidate or a leading candidate for president and this is Joe Biden and this is the Democrats weaponizing the justice system because they're afraid of the voters.”

Vivek Ramaswamy #conspiracy #dunning-kruger mediaite.com

Fielding a series of conspiratorial rapid-fire questions from from Stein, Ramaswamy declared of the 1969 Apollo moon landing “I have no evidence to suggest it was fake, so I’m gonna say it was real.”

He was less sure, however, when Stein asked if 9/11 was an “inside job, or exactly what the government tells us.”

Ramaswamy’s reply delighted Stein:

I don’t believe the government has told us the truth. Again, I’m driven by evidence and data. What I’ve seen in the last several years is we have to be skeptical of what the government does tell us. I haven’t seen evidence to the contrary, but do I believe everything the government told us about it? Absolutely not. Do I believe the 9/11 Commission? Absolutely not.

“Yeah, 9/11 Commission lied,” agreed Stein.

Ramaswamy, who professed to form his opinions on the basis of evidence before expressing an opinion he said he had no evidence for, explained his answer later to Semafor’s Shelby Talcott.

“I think there have long been unanswered questions about who knew about it in the Saudi government. That’s what I was getting at,” said Ramaswamy who told Talcott that he doesn’t believe the attacks were an “inside job.”

To explain the discrepancy in his answers, Ramaswamy cited the fact that “Some guy who is a comedian was spouting off questions about the moon landing not being real before that.”

Ramaswamy is presently in third place in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls of the GOP primary.

Marsha Blackburn #conspiracy #wingnut huffpost.com

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has appeared to suggest that an announcement about the fate of the missing Titan submersible was somehow planned to distract from accusations against the president’s son Hunter Biden.
“If the U.S. Navy suspected that the Titan Submersible imploded just hours after it began its voyage, why did the Coast Guard wait until Thursday—the same day the IRS whistleblowers testified before Congress—to make their announcement to the public?” asked the senator in a Friday night tweet.

Authorities searching for the Titan said Thursday afternoon that the vessel seemed to suffer a “catastrophic” failure not long after launching into the North Atlantic on Sunday, killing all aboard. It took several days to mobilize high-tech equipment and locate any sign of the sub. After a debris field on the ocean floor turned out to be remnants of the Titan, the U.S. Navy revealed that it had detected what was likely the sound of the vessel imploding Sunday, although the Navy said it could not be sure at the time.

Also on Thursday, the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee convened behind closed doors and voted to release IRS whistleblower testimony criticizing a federal investigation into Joe Biden’s son.

The interviews with the two whistleblowers had taken place weeks ago, not the same day as the Titan announcement, as Blackburn suggested.

Clay Higgins #fundie vox.com

US Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana recently advocated for libraries to be replaced with “church-owned” alternatives. “Over time, American communities will build beautiful, church owned public-access libraries. I’m going to help these churches get funding,” he tweeted. “We will change the whole public library paradigm. The libraries regular Americans recall are gone. They’ve become liberal grooming centers.”

Lu Shaye #wingnut #moonbat #crackpot #pratt news.yahoo.com

In an interview with Swiss journalist Darius Rochebin, Chinese ambassador to France Lu Shaye said that former Soviet countries "have no effective status in international law."

“In international law, even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have the effective status because there is no international agreement to materialize their status of a sovereign country,” he said.

“He denies the very existence of countries like Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakhstan, etc.,” Antoine Bondaz, a China expert at the Paris-based think-tank Foundation for Strategic Research, wrote on Twitter.

Also, when asked whether he thinks Crimea belongs to Ukraine, the ambassador said, "it depends on how you perceive the problem," adding that "it's not that simple." He also said Crimea was "Russian at the beginning," without specifying what he meant by beginning.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the issue.