Daily Kos

Daily Kos https://www.dailykos.com News Community Action Copyright - Kos Media, LLC Tue, 23 May 2023 09:15:52 +0000 Tue, 23 May 2023 09:15:52 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Christian nationalist bemoans the results of Christian nationalism https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170754/-Christian-nationalist-bemoans-the-results-of-Christian-nationalism?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Barry Goldwater, the father of the modern conservative movement, never met a racist or bigot he didn’t love. Those people were the foundation<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/45843546/southern-strategy/" title=""> of his infamous brainchild</a>—the Southern Strategy—which leveraged racist sympathies to wedge Southern whites away from the Democratic Party. But even he foresaw the dangers of the Christian right. “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem,” Goldwater said in 1994, as quoted in John Dean’s 2006 book, “Conservatives Without Conscience.” “Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” Amen, Barry. In the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the fierce national backlash against conservative infringement on our personal freedoms, some of those Christian conservatives are starting to feel … uneasy. rss@dailykos.com (kos) Republicans StreetProphets _2170754 Mon, 22 May 2023 22:28:28 +0000 Ukraine Update: The pro-Russian world unconvincingly celebrates its pyrrhic victory https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170641/-Ukraine-Update-The-pro-Russian-world-unconvincingly-celebrates-its-pyrrhic-victory?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <div><a name="update-1684772383000"></a></div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684772383000"><a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684772383000">UPDATE: Monday, May 22, 2023 · 4:19:43 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content"> Yes, I’m keeping an eye on the Belgorod situation, where some undetermined group (claiming to be Russian partisans, but you never know) ambushed a border outpost and “liberated” several towns.  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;I spoke with &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/legion_svoboda?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@legion_svoboda&lt;/a&gt; to confirm the operation to “liberate” Russia’s &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Belgorod?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#Belgorod&lt;/a&gt;. They said they’re working independently of Ukraine &amp;amp; have taken three villages so far and are now fighting for Grayvoron. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;They claim the surprise left Russian troops “fleeing in panic” 1/3&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Liz Cookman (@liz_cookman) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/liz_cookman/status/1660645902359437315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 22, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I spoke with <a href="https://twitter.com/legion_svoboda?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@legion_svoboda</a> to confirm the operation to “liberate” Russia’s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Belgorod?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Belgorod</a>. They said they’re working independently of Ukraine & have taken three villages so far and are now fighting for Grayvoron. They claim the surprise left Russian troops “fleeing in panic” 1/3— Liz Cookman (@liz_cookman) <a href="https://twitter.com/liz_cookman/status/1660645902359437315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> Seems like a big troll to me. There is no indication these guys have the manpower for anything but embarrassing Putin.  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Ukrainian-backed free Russian forces actually picked a fairly interesting place to take some territory. Grayvoron is bounded on 2 sides by the Vorskla and Hraivornka Rivers, and on the other two sides by the Ukrainian border. &lt;a href="https://t.co/OPq5JkRrwH"&gt;pic.twitter.com/OPq5JkRrwH&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1660662431826300929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 22, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Ukrainian-backed free Russian forces actually picked a fairly interesting place to take some territory. Grayvoron is bounded on 2 sides by the Vorskla and Hraivornka Rivers, and on the other two sides by the Ukrainian border. <a href="https://t.co/OPq5JkRrwH">pic.twitter.com/OPq5JkRrwH</a>— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) <a href="https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1660662431826300929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> If nothing else, this should force Russia to deploy troops along its long border with Ukraine, draining it of manpower along the active front. As such, this could very well be part of Ukraine’s “shaping the battlefield” operations. Finally, if you see Ukrainians joke that these “partisans” got their armored vehicles at “any Russian military store,” that’s a reference to 2014, when Russia claimed its Luhansk and Donetsk militias bought their hundreds of tanks at a Russian military store. That cheeky troll actually does suggest Ukraine is having a hand in this operation.  </div> </div> The famous Greek general King Pyrrhus of Epirus, having defeated the Romans at Heraclea in 280 B.C. and at Asculum a year later, remarked, “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.” We all know about pyrrhic victories, but the additional context is surprisingly relevant today. From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Lives">Plutarch’s telling</a>:  <blockquote>The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one other such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.</blockquote> With Bakhmut’s fall to the Russians after one year of trying, Is anyone else in Russia pondering Pyrrhus’ fate? Certainly not in Russian Telegram and Twitter, where vile pro-Putin trash are celebrating their great “victory” after an initial muted reaction. rss@dailykos.com (kos) Bakhmut G7 Klischiivka Popasna Russia Ukraine War _2170641 Mon, 22 May 2023 15:50:33 +0000 Republicans are hellbent on destroying the economy https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170719/-Republicans-are-hellbent-on-destroying-the-economy?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are meeting Monday afternoon for further talks on the impending debt ceiling crisis, following <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/yellen-says-june-1-is-hard-deadline-raising-debt-ceiling-2023-05-21/">another warning</a> on Sunday from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that June 1 is the “hard deadline” for avoiding a default. Don’t expect much in the way of progress with this meeting: McCarthy set the tone early, <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1660652060449054721?s=20">saying</a> Monday morning, “It's very hard to get [Democrats] off that spending spree that they're addicted to.” He has rejected any form of increasing revenue, like repealing the <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/fundamentally-flawed-2017-tax-law-largely-leaves-low-and-moderate-income">"fundamentally flawed"</a> tax cuts Republicans handed billionaires in 2017, insisting on spending cuts that economists say will cause a recession. It’s either that or default, which would result in economic catastrophe. Republicans don't seem to care who gets hit by the shrapnel. The “who” starts with veterans and seniors, who are pretty much going to be screwed either way. As NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/22/1177169711/debt-ceiling-limit-default-veterans-social-security-government-benefits">reports</a>, two big bills come due on June 1 and 2, and the first days of every month: $12 billion for veterans’ benefits and $25 billion for Social Security benefits. The best case after default is that the Treasury would be able to figure out some way to pay these obligations, albeit delayed. And delayed benefits for veterans and seniors could mean rent and mortgages and utilities not getting paid, prescriptions going unfilled, and cupboards and fridges going empty. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Budget DebtCeiling FreedomCaucus JoeBiden KevinMcCarthy Republicans _2170719 Mon, 22 May 2023 19:10:28 +0000 Putin issues laughable new MAGA-approved sanction list https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170685/-Putin-issues-laughable-new-MAGA-approved-sanction-list?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= There’s a <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4012559-russia-bans-obama-maddow-colbert-over-sanctions/" title="">new list of 500 Americans</a> Vladimir Putin has banned from traveling to or having business in Russia, and it’s a who’s who of Donald Trump’s enemies. Putin is using American sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine as an excuse for the travel bans, but his real reason seems clear: to strengthen his alliance with Trump and MAGA Republicans. From Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused to find those <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/3/2005607/-Trump-caught-on-tape-threatening-Raffensperger-demanded-state-find-votes-to-overturn-Biden-win">11,780 votes for Trump</a> in 2020, to Letitia James, the state attorney general of New York who is currently prosecuting Trump, and late-night variety show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers, who ridicule Trump on a nightly basis. Oh, and former President Barack Obama. It sounds like Trump wrote the talking points, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/21/world/europe/russia-sanctions-trump.html">the list cites</a> “those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called storming of the Capitol,” including special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s hoarding of classified documents and his efforts to steal the 2020 election, and Lt. Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who shot insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt. Raffensperger, for one, isn’t too bothered by the prospect of not getting to go see the wonders of Putin’s Russia. He retweeted this from his chief aide, Gabriel Sterling. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;A great honor for &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/GaSecofState?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;@GaSecofState&lt;/a&gt; Raffensperger. He is one of the hundreds of Americans banned from Russia by Vladimir Putin. That means Brad is doing it right. &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gapol?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#gapol&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/fNJkR4Klgz"&gt;pic.twitter.com/fNJkR4Klgz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/GabrielSterling/status/1659741334868033537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 20, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;"><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A great honor for <a href="https://twitter.com/GaSecofState?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GaSecofState</a> Raffensperger. He is one of the hundreds of Americans banned from Russia by Vladimir Putin. That means Brad is doing it right. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gapol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gapol</a> <a href="https://t.co/fNJkR4Klgz">pic.twitter.com/fNJkR4Klgz</a>— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) <a href="https://twitter.com/GabrielSterling/status/1659741334868033537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2023</a></blockquote></div> He’s in <a href="https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1871495/" title="">good company</a>. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump Jan6 Russia Sanctions Ukraine VladimirPutin _2170685 Mon, 22 May 2023 14:33:01 +0000 Cowardly DeSantis strikes again https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170715/-Cowardly-DeSantis-strikes-again?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= So-called populist politicians are uniformly bullies by nature, but there aren't many politicians out there who are both bullies and so visibly, relentlessly gutless as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis gave the keynote speech on Saturday night at the anti-abortion group Florida Family Policy Council's annual dinner. This is the usual stuff of political campaigning; DeSantis' staff undoubtedly scheduled his appearance to show support for the far-right movement currently pressing for nationwide abortion bans. The message the audience is supposed to take from the speech: “See there, I am one of you.” In DeSantis' case, however, that message has to remain almost entirely subliminal. DeSantis may have been speaking to one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups in the state, for the express purpose of polishing, yet again, his fringe-right bona fides, but <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/21/desantis-abortion-ffpc-gala/">The Washington Post reports</a> that during DeSantis' entire 40-minute speech, he mentioned abortion only once, and only by euphemism, and for a grand total of ... 20 seconds. rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Abortion Conservatives Republicans RonDeSantis _2170715 Mon, 22 May 2023 17:43:14 +0000 Twitter reacts to Marjorie Taylor Greene's defense of beau in drag https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170708/-Hypocrite-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-defends-drag-wearing-beau?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= As <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-defends-boyfriend-video-of-him-in-drag-2023-5" target="_blank">reported by </a>Business Insider, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took a break Sunday from <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-slams-kids-drag-shows-needs-illegal-1715866">railing against</a> Drag Queen Story Hours to get on Twitter and come to the defense of her new boyfriend, Brian Glenn. Glenn is the director of programming at Right Side Broadcasting and, like Greene, is a <a href="https://twitter.com/brianglenntv/status/1646132064931008514?s=20">transphobic</a> jackass. A few hours earlier, PatriotTakes <a href="https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1660412008561364992">tweeted</a> a video from years ago, when Glenn was a local news anchor for WFAA in Dallas. Guess who appears in the video dressed in drag and saying, “I’m kicking these shoes off, but I may keep the pantyhose on. It does feel kind of good, actually”? I’ll give you one guess. The video picked up steam and Greene decided to attempt a Jedi mind trick on the world by <a href="https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1660466459846270976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1660466459846270976%7Ctwgr%5Ee314074a0fd01692953660a153b0de5f0182db6f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fmarjorie-taylor-greene-defends-boyfriend-video-of-him-in-drag-2023-5">retweeting</a> the video and writing about how she was “literally lol’ing,” and “the left is so stupid.” Of course, telling us that this “drag” display is okay while insisting that anyone she isn’t in an intimate relationship with is a groomer isn’t owning the libs like Greene thinks it is. The internet did its work, reminding Greene that this isn’t the first time her new beau put on a public drag show. RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/28/2160691/-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-blames-school-closures-for-the-existence-of-trans-children">Rep. Greene continues terrorizing House Committee meeting with new anti-trans screed</a> rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) bookbanning BrianGlenn drag Greene hyrpocisy LGBTQ Marjorie MoralHypocrisy mtg Transphobia _2170708 Mon, 22 May 2023 20:34:57 +0000 DeSantis got his governorship with help from a cast of shady characters https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170744/-DeSantis-got-his-governorship-with-help-from-a-cast-of-shady-characters?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= In 2019, Lev Parnas and his partner, Igor Furman, were<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/10/1891516/-Giuliani-pals-were-attempting-to-flee-country-when-arrested-for-bribery-funneling-foreign-funds"> arrested</a> at a New York airport as they attempted to flee the country. One day later, the<a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2019/10/10/giuliani-associate-named-in-ukraine-inquiry-raised-money-for-desantis/" title=""> Tampa Bay Times</a> revealed that Parnas had hosted at least two fundraisers for then-gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis. Parnas had raised “significant sums of money,” including a $50,000 direct contribution to DeSantis. Three years later, Parnas was convicted on charges of conspiring to funnel foreign contributions into U.S. political campaigns, soliciting more contributions, and aiding and abetting still more illegal contributions. The source of those contributions was indicted Russian oligarch Andrey Muraviev. DeSantis gave back the $50,000, though not the other money that Parnas had directed his way. Through all of this DeSantis’ insisted that he had little or no contact with either Parnas or Furman, and that he did “not have a relationship with these individuals.” He continued to claim that Parnas was “just another donor.” But Ron DeSantis was lying. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texts-tie-desantis-closely-trump-insider-lev-parnas-2018-race-2023-05-22/">Reuters</a> has published a series of texts that show how DeSantis begged for help from Parnas, how Rudy Giuliani became involved, and without the help of both of them, DeSantis likely would never have become governor of Florida. rss@dailykos.com (Mark Sumner) AndrewGillum Election2018 Florida IgorFurman LevParnas RonDeSantis RudyGuiliani _2170744 Mon, 22 May 2023 21:45:19 +0000 'Could she or I go to jail for this?' Doctors bemoan wave of abortion laws https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170760/--Could-she-or-I-go-to-jail-for-this-Doctors-bemoan-wave-of-abortion-laws?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= There are now 14 states with near-total abortion bans, where access to full reproductive health care isn’t just impossible, but medical professionals providing that care can’t even talk publicly about what it means for their patients and themselves. Physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, social workers, and other health care workers in those states who provide obstetrics care have been gagged by the hospitals and clinics they work for when it comes to abortion and the impact the bans are having on their patients. The University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health research program stepped into the breach, giving providers the ability to speak out through this <a href="https://www.ansirh.org/research/ongoing/care-post-roe">anonymous survey</a> and allowing them to detail what’s happening to the standards of care in their states since the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights. The research program released its <a href="https://www.ansirh.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/Care%20Post-Roe%20Preliminary%20Findings.pdf">first report from the survey</a>, which started last September, and the results are as grim as you’d expect for both patients and doctors. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Abortion AbortionBans ReproductiveHealth SupremeCourt _2170760 Mon, 22 May 2023 23:07:47 +0000 Democrats introduce bill to restore integrity and respect for the rule of law to the Supreme Court https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2119538/-Democrats-introduce-bill-to-restore-integrity-and-respect-for-the-rule-of-law-to-the-Supreme-Court?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The Supreme Court is supposed to be the last line of defense against attacks on our fundamental freedoms and constitutional rights. But today’s court does not honor that solemn duty. Instead, the ultraconservative supermajority on the bench prioritizes corporate interests, ultrawealthy donors, and hyperpartisan political outcomes. John Roberts' Supreme Court gutted the<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/eight-years-ago-the-supreme-court-gutted-the-voting-rights-act-widespread-voter-suppression-resulted/" target="_blank"> Voting Rights Ac</a>t, overturned <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0" target="_blank">Roe v. Wade</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/us/eviction-moratorium-ends.html#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Supreme%20Court%20on,from%20adversaries%20and%20allies%20alike." target="_blank">blocked President Biden’s pandemic eviction </a>moratorium, reinstated Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/24/trump-mexico-border-supreme-court-506833" target="_blank" title="">cruel “Remain in Mexico” policy</a>, curtailed workers’ <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-nlrb-protects-workers-right-to-organize-yet-remains-underfunded/" target="_blank" title="">rights to organize</a>, allowed <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/27/731847977/supreme-court-rules-partisan-gerrymandering-is-beyond-the-reach-of-federal-court#:~:text=In%20a%205%2D4%20decision,extreme%20gerrymandering%20violates%20the%20Constitution." target="_blank">partisan gerrymandering</a>, and so much more. The court is issuing many of these decisions via the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/31/supreme-court-us-cases-shadow-docket">shadow docket</a>, emergency rulings that are unsigned and issued without hearing oral arguments—and in some cases, quite literally stealing away our human rights like a thief in the night. At the same time, the list of scandals erupting around conservative justices is only getting longer. Clarence Thomas <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow">secretly</a> accepted millions of dollars' worth of lavish gifts from a billionaire megadonor. Brett Kavanaugh had an alarming <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-ethics-complaints-dismissed_n_5d4442a1e4b0acb57fcb6356" target="_blank">83 ethics complaints </a>filed against him even before being confirmed. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579">Neil Gorsuch</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/04/26/amy-coney-barrett-rebuffs-demands-to-recuse-from-dark-money-case-involving-group-that-supported-her-confirmation/?sh=736be7cc3171">Amy Coney Barrett</a> have refused to recuse themselves from cases where there is a potential conflict of interest, and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/01/31/chief-justice-roberts-wife-is-latest-supreme-court-spouse-to-spark-ethics-concerns/?sh=57fc10295bb8">John Roberts' wife</a> has been paid millions by firms with cases before the court. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/forms/sign-the-petition-congress-must-expand-the-supreme-court-3" title="">Sign if you agree: Congress must restore balance to the nation's highest court. It's time to expand the Supreme Court. </a> rss@dailykos.com (TealBomb) Activism AmyConeyBarrett ClarenceThomas Ethics expandthecourt JohnRoberts judicialethics JudiciaryAct NeilGorsuch Recommended SCOTUS SupremeCourt _2119538 Mon, 22 May 2023 17:49:32 +0000 9th Circuit reverses judge's ruling striking down deportation law as racist https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170785/-9th-Circuit-reverses-judge-s-ruling-striking-down-deportation-law-as-racist?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A federal appeals court has reversed an unprecedented <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nevada-immigration-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-laws-6e3ebe4ba12d971ec9ed199c005b31b5">ruling in Nevada</a> that struck down a longstanding U.S. deportation law as racist and unconstitutional. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday in its long-awaited decision that Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act — which makes it a crime to return to the U.S. after deportation, removal or denied entry — ”is facially neutral as to race.” The ruling is a blow for advocates who had hoped to see major changes to the nation’s immigration system after U.S. District Judge Miranda Du had thrown out an illegal reentry charge more than two years ago against a Mexican immigrant. Du said she dismissed the case on the grounds that Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act had violated Gustavo Carrillo-Lopez's constitutional rights and is discriminatory against Latinos. “We are deeply disappointed in the Ninth Circuit’s decision to uphold Section 1326, a discriminatory law that continues to fuel the mass incarceration of Black and brown people, waste government resources, and tear families apart,” said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project. An attorney for Gustavo-Carrillo said she, too, was disappointed by the court's ruling but declined to say whether she plans on appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We intend to seek further review on this very important constitutional issue,” Amy Cleary said in a statement to The Associated Press. Du's ruling in August 2021 was the first of its kind since Congress made it a crime almost a century ago to return to the U.S. after deportation under the Undesirable Aliens Act of 1929. The Justice Department quickly appealed and continued to pursue Section 1326 cases across the country, because Du's order did not include an injunction on the statute. The U.S. government previously conceded that the 1929 law was based on racism but argued in December before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit that later revisions — like Section 1326 — made it constitutional. “That statute, as enacted in 1952 and amended since, is constitutional under equal protection principles,” a Justice Department attorney told the judges. “And the district court in this case is the only one in the country to conclude otherwise.” The Justice Department has not responded to a request for comment. In her ruling, Du wrote that the 1952 revision failed to “cleanse” the 1929 law’s “racist, nativist roots,” adding that amendments to Section 1326 over the years “have simply made the provision more punitive and broadened its reach.” Between October 2021 and September 2022, the federal government’s fiscal year, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao/page/file/1460661/download" title="">96% of people</a> charged under Section 1326 were from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands. Section 1326, along with its misdemeanor counterpart Section 1325, are among the most prosecuted charges by the federal government. Section 1325 criminalizes unauthorized entry into the U.S. Prosecutions hit <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-prosecuted-record-breaking-number-immigration-related-cases-fiscal-year">record numbers</a> in the 2019 budget year, when nearly 90,000 people were charged under Section 1325 and nearly 25,500 under Section 1326. The number of cases has fallen since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Justice Department continues to prosecute tens of thousands of people annually for illegal reentry. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) 9thCircuitCourtofAppeals Immigration Mexico USBorder _2170785 Tue, 23 May 2023 00:05:02 +0000 North Carolina governor says GOP teacher pay, voucher plans a public education ‘disaster’ https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170770/-North-Carolina-governor-says-GOP-teacher-pay-voucher-plans-a-public-education-disaster?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper launched a campaign Monday to try to beat back education and tax legislation from the Republican-controlled General Assembly that he said if enacted would crush North Carolina's public schools and wobble the state's economic future. “It’s clear that the Republican legislature is aiming to choke the life out of public education,” Cooper said in a recorded speech released Monday. He urged voters to “take immediate action and tell them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation.” In his video address, Cooper said he's “declaring this a state of emergency” for public education but pointed out it was not an official order. He called on residents to encourage their legislators to reject a spate of GOP-backed education bills in the final weeks of the chief work period for this year’s legislative session. The legislature's agenda for the coming weeks includes <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-government-budget-senate-6662709a4863fc16d76c2311b764a831">passing a state budget</a> for the year starting July 1. The governor will hold public events across the state in the days ahead to rally parents, educators and business leaders. Cooper said public school teacher pay proposals by Republicans fall way short and will fail to address a statewide teacher shortage. He argued deeper income tax cuts in the competing <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-senate-government-budget-99868f607b3c71a3dd6c299af41780f1">House and Senate budget proposals</a> that also would benefit the highest wage earners would ultimately empty state coffers. At the same time, the GOP is moving to dramatically expand the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-private-schools-government-funding-b33381284d0240bd83c7c99f8209798c" title="">state’s K-12 private school scholarship program</a> so that families of any income level could receive financial assistance, not just the poor and middle class. That expansion ultimately would send over $500 million in taxpayer money annually to the Opportunity Scholarship Program. In contrast, the governor said, the Senate budget would raise base salaries for some veteran teachers by just $250 over two years. “They’ve clearly given up on the public schools and have decided to fund private schools instead,” Cooper told The Associated Press in an interview in advance of speech. “This is an intentional slap in the face of teachers.” Republicans point out that public education spending would grow by several hundred million dollars a year annually in their competing plans. And GOP leaders consider expansion of the private-school vouchers program part of a philosophy to give all children access to education options — whatever the source — to help them succeed. Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County, whose <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-party-switch-republican-01af019aa58fd44f0e2110c32a48c4c0">recent party switch</a> from Democrat to Republican gave the GOP veto-proof seat majorities in both chambers, dismissed Cooper's speech as “political theater.” “The governor is advocating for systems rather than students themselves,” Cotham said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/triciacotham/status/1660732628197158912?s=20">tweet</a>. “Education is not one-size-fits-all and NC families should have the freedom to determine what kind of education is best for them.” Randy Brechbiel, a spokesperson for Senate leader Phil Berger, shared similar criticism, noting that “meaningless publicity stunts do nothing to improve educational outcomes in our state.” Cooper's use of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-veto-override-north-carolina-4282913637b499490494dd3e3cce3478">gubernatorial bully pulpit</a> comes as his power to confront the legislature has been weakened significantly in the weeks since <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-north-carolina-veto-override-tricia-cotham-a91342de76cd8463a637f634b4dbcf36">Cotham switched parties</a>. He said he would have issued the clarion call for education even if he had sizeable legislative support to uphold his veto because education is critical to the state's fiscal health. The public school system is often the largest employer in rural counties and prepares students for the workforce. “The general public doesn’t realize the disaster that is brewing,” he told the AP. The House proposal would raise average teacher pay by 10.2% over two years, compared with 4.5% in the Senate plan, which would lag behind recent inflation rates. Cooper's budget proposal wanted 18% average raises. The governor also accused legislators of doing little to expand the state's prekindergarten program for at-risk children and to stabilize child care centers. And he warned of a proposed constitutional amendment that if placed on the ballot would remove his ability to appoint nearly all members of the State Board of Education. Members would be picked in district elections instead. “If they get their way," he said in his speech, "our State Board of Education will be replaced by political hacks who can dictate what is taught and not taught in our public schools.” rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Education NorthCarolina RoyCooper _2170770 Mon, 22 May 2023 23:34:11 +0000 E. Jean Carroll adds Trump's post-verdict comments to pending defamation case, seeks at least $10M https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170789/-E-Jean-Carroll-adds-Trump-s-post-verdict-comments-to-pending-defamation-case?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Lawyers for a columnist who won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation award against former President Donald Trump filed an amended lawsuit against him on Monday seeking to hold him liable for remarks he made after the verdict. The amended lawsuit, seeking at least $10 million in compensatory damages, was filed in Manhattan federal court by lawyers for E. Jean Carroll, who says remarks by Trump after she made rape allegations against him so spoiled her reputation that she lost her longtime job as an Elle magazine advice columnist. A nine-person jury two weeks ago decided that Trump had sexually abused Carroll at an upscale Manhattan department store in early spring 1996. Carroll, who testified during the trial, first revealed in a 2019 book her claims that Trump raped her in a dressing room, but the jury rejected that claim. Joe Tacopina, a Trump lawyer, declined to comment on the new claims. Kaplan filed the new claims in amending a defamation lawsuit that was put on hold as an appeals court was deciding whether Trump could be held liable for remarks he made in 2019 while he was still president. The U.S. Justice Department has supported his lawyers' claims that the United States should be substituted as the defendant. In the new claim, Carroll's lawyers said Trump, “undeterred by the jury’s verdict, persisted in maliciously defaming Carroll yet again" the next day during a “town hall” event hosted by CNN. “He doubled down on his prior defamatory statements, asserting to an audience all too ready to cheer him on that ‘I never met this woman. I never saw this woman,’ that he did not sexually assault Carroll, and that her account — which had just been validated by a jury of Trump’s peers one day before — was a ‘fake,’ ‘made up story’ invented by a ‘whack job.’ Those statements resulted in enthusiastic cheers and applause from the audience on live TV,” the lawyers wrote. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Defamation DonaldTrump EJeanCarroll _2170789 Mon, 22 May 2023 22:04:42 +0000 Using 'he/him,' 'she/her' in emails got 2 dorm directors fired at small New York Christian college https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170761/-Using-he-him-she-her-in-emails-got-2-dorm-directors-fired-at-small-New-York-Christian-college?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Shua Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, two former dorm directors at a small Christian university in western New York, acknowledge their names are unconventional, which explains why they attached <a href="https://apnews.com/article/crime-colorado-springs-gender-d87d4116e3ef583e23e9cad44e369fa2">gender identities</a> to their work email signatures. Wilmot uses “he/him.” Zelaya goes by “she/her.” Their former employer, Houghton University, wanted them to drop the identifiers in line with a new policy for email formats implemented in September. Both refused and were fired. “My name is Shua. It’s an unusual name. And it ends with a vowel, ‘a,’ that is traditionally feminine in many languages,” Wilmot said in a nearly one-hour video he and Zelaya posted on YouTube shortly after they were let go last month. “If you get an email from me and you don’t know who I am, you might not know how to gender me.” Ongoing culture wars in the U.S. over sexual preferences, gender IDs and transgender rights have engulfed politics, school campuses and many other facets of public and private life. At least 17 Republican-led states have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/restrictions-targeting-transgender-people-legislative-updates-df66b5a86be47b03dd5a50449d239275" title="">severely restricted gender affirming care</a>. Debates continue to rage in some communities about school curricula mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity. And pickets have sprung up outside public libraries <a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-a26e7eee15df0bbc2bb98071b683b1f4">hosting “drag story hours.”</a> Meanwhile, controversies swirl at campuses with religious affiliations. The recent firings prompted more than 700 Houghton alumni to sign a petition in protest. In the Northwest, 16 plaintiffs are suing Seattle Pacific University, a Christian liberal arts college, to challenge the school’s employment policy barring people in same-sex relationships from full-time jobs. In New York City, LGBTQ students are challenging Yeshiva University's decision to bar their student-run club from campus. Paul Southwick, director of the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, a 2-year-old advocacy group for LGBTQ students at publicly funded religious colleges and universities, said actions such as these are cause for despair. “There's a backlash against the rise of LGBTQ rights,” he said, and not just with "white evangelical Christianity in the South ... but in places like New York and Oregon that we wouldn’t think would be experiencing this backlash.” Earlier this year, a federal judge in Oregon dismissed a lawsuit that LGBTQ students filed against the U.S. Department of Education claiming it didn't protect them against discrimination at religiously affiliated universities receiving federal money. Houghton University, an 800-student campus 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Buffalo, says it offers a “Christ-centered education in the liberal arts and sciences.” In a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Saturday, the university said it could not speak publicly about personnel matters, but it “has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures.” The university said it had previously asked employees to remove “anything extraneous,” including Bible quotes, from email signatures. The university also shared with the AP an email outlining its new policy sent to staff. The memo cautioned employees against using politically divisive and inflammatory speech in communications bearing the Houghton name. It also directed them to use standardized signature styles and forbade the use of pronouns. Also attached to the statement was a copy of a letter university President Wayne D. Lewis Jr. sent to students. “I would never ask you to agree with or support every decision I make,” Lewis wrote. “But I do humbly ask that you resist the temptation to reduce Houghton’s decision making to the simple and convenient political narratives of our time.” Zelaya said she received an email in the fall from administrators saying the school was mandating changes in colors, fonts and other aspects of email to help the school maintain branding consistency. She complied, she said, but retained her pronouns on her signature, calling it a “standard industry practice” to do so. In the dismissal letters hand-delivered to Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, copies of which they shared on social media, the university wrote that the firings were “a result of your refusal to remove pronouns in your email signatures in violation of institutional policy.” In a video posted on Facebook, Zelaya said she already has another job lined up. In their joint YouTube video, she and Wilmot urged their supporters to push for change in policies, but constructively and with civility. “As a result of this whole controversy, as a result of having my pronouns in my email signature,” Wilmot said, “it’s given me the opportunity to educate people on this topic.” rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) HoughtonUniversity LGBTQ RaeganZelaya ShuaWilmot _2170761 Mon, 22 May 2023 20:20:33 +0000 Nebraska governor signs 12-week abortion ban, limits on gender-affirming care for minors https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170747/-Nebraska-governor-signs-12-week-abortion-ban-limits-on-gender-affirming-care-for-minors?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill Monday that bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming medical care for people younger than 19. The abortion ban takes effect immediately, while the ban on gender-affirming care takes effect on Oct. 1. The hybrid measure ties together restrictions that Republicans have pursued across the U.S. Pillen called the law “the most significant win for social conservative agenda in over a generation of Nebraska” before he signed the law while holding a 5-day-old baby as his two oldest granddaughters stood next to him. Opponents have promised to sue to try and block the law. The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, Mindy Rush Chipman, said in a statement that “every option is on the table to undo these regressive measures.” “The governor’s decision to sign these sweeping restrictions into law betrays a total disregard for Nebraskans’ freedom, health and well-being,” Rush Chipman said. “Just as we have seen in other states, these bans will result in significant harm, most intensely hurting already vulnerable communities.” Nebraska had not passed a new abortion ban since 2010, when it became the first state to limit the procedure at around 20 weeks of pregnancy. The 12-week ban includes exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. The law also will prevent transgender people under 19 from receiving any gender-confirming surgery. It restricts the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers in minors, putting the state’s chief medical officer — a political appointee who is an ear, nose and throat doctor — in charge of setting the rules for those therapies. In Nebraska, people younger than 19 are considered minors. Nebraska’s conservative-led, unicameral Legislature <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-transgender-ban-nebraska-filibuster-b0b88845d29f1aaadf7936b7304a0507">passed the bill</a> with the two contentious issues on Friday after hours of heated debate. Conservative lawmakers wrangled just enough votes to end a filibuster before approving the bill. The proposal restricting gender-affirming care was the flashpoint of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/filibuster-transgender-gender-affirming-therapy-bill-nebraska-cavanaugh-b9018fd1bf72112ca984ff58679eda6d">an epic filibuster</a> led by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh. She and a handful of progressive allies slowed the business of passing laws to a crawl by introducing amendment after amendment to every bill that made it to the Senate floor. That sent leadership scrambling to prioritize which bills to push through. Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth, who introduced the proposal restricting gender-affirming care, said Monday that the filibuster actually gave senators more time to discuss and research the issue. “The filibuster actually is what made this happen,” Kauth said. “And so I doubt it was their intention, but that gave us the time to make this work.” North Carolina also recently passed a 12-week abortion ban, among a slew of restrictions enacted in states after the U.S. Supreme Court last year <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling</a> that established a nationwide right to abortion. Fourteen states have approved an abortion ban throughout pregnancy. Nebraska is now among at least 18 states that have enacted laws <a href="https://apnews.com/article/restrictions-targeting-transgender-people-legislative-updates-df66b5a86be47b03dd5a50449d239275" title="">restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care</a> for minors. Proposals are pending before the governors of Texas and Missouri. Medical groups and advocates say such restrictions are further marginalizing transgender youth and threatening their health. One Nebraska lawmaker, Omaha state Sen. Megan Hunt, disclosed in March that her teenage son is transgender and said Friday that she now plans to leave the state. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Abortion LGBTQ MachaelaCavanaugh MeganHunt Nebraska Trans _2170747 Mon, 22 May 2023 19:12:05 +0000 Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, a prominent moderate, will not seek reelection https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170704/-Delaware-Sen-Tom-Carper-a-prominent-moderate-will-not-seek-reelection?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, a moderate Democrat who has held statewide office since 1976, announced Monday that he <a href="https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2023/05/22/tom-carper-us-senator-delaware-retire-politics/70241463007/">would not seek a fifth term</a> next year. The senator also made his preferred successor clear in his departure speech, in which he <a href="https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1660669786815188992">asked Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester</a> to run. Blunt Rochester, who holds the state’s only House seat, became both the first woman and Black person to represent Delaware in Congress with her 2016 victory, and she'd make history again should she replace Carper. While the eventual Democratic nominee should have no trouble in the general election in solidly blue Delaware, state politics were far different during the early part of Carper's career. The future senator, who was born in West Virginia and served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, first arrived in the First State in 1973 as a student of the University of Delaware's business school. He quickly became involved in local politics the next year by <a href="https://www.carper.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/null-392/">working on Democrat Jim Soles' campaign</a> for the House, an effort that <a href="https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=31905">ended in a 58-40 loss</a> against Republican incumbent <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/11/2029869/-Morning-Digest-Texas-governor-nets-first-primary-challenger-but-can-he-make-the-incumbent-sweat#16">Pete du Pont</a> despite the Watergate wave that ushered many Democrats into Congress. Carper, though, had more luck in 1976 when he sought the post of state treasurer at the age of 29 and <a href="https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=41284">won 55-43</a> as Jimmy Carter captured the state's electoral votes <a href="https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?fips=10&year=1976&f=0&off=0&elect=0">by a smaller 52-47 margin</a>. Carper's win proved to be a bright spot for his party locally on what was otherwise a rough night: Du Pont unseated Gov. Sherman Tribbitt in a landslide while two future Carper foes prevailed in their respective races, with Sen. William Roth winning reelection and Thomas Evans succeeding Du Pont in the House. rss@dailykos.com (Jeff Singer) DailyKosElections DE-Sen Delaware LisaBluntRochester TomCarper _2170704 Mon, 22 May 2023 17:28:19 +0000 'Utterly dishonest': Twitter reacts to Ted Cruz's NAACP criticisms https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170698/-Ted-Cruz-gets-dragged-on-Twitter-for-NAACP-criticism?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= On Saturday the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida in response to the relentless Republican attacks on <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/3/2145104/-DeSantis-anti-CRT-Red-Scare-is-forcing-professors-to-hide-curriculum-on-race-drop-courses">Black</a>, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/26/2149399/-Florida-Man-Ron-DeSantis-has-successfully-scared-queer-parents-into-trying-to-flee-the-state">LGBTQ</a>+, and immigrant families. In a <a href="https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-issues-travel-advisory-florida">statement</a>, the NAACP wrote: “The travel advisory comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.” On Sunday, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1660401316860928001">criticized</a> the NAACP’s stance on Twitter, saying that while they did good work for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, “Today, Dr. King would be ashamed of how profoundly they’ve lost their way.“ The responses were the only catharsis one can have in the face of such an ahistorical statement. RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/18/2129694/-Videos-emerge-of-election-fraud-arrests-by-DeSantis-gestapo-Why-now-Why-me">Unbelievable videos emerge showing Ron DeSantis' trumped-up election fraud arrests</a> rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) CRT Education Florida Health lgbtqblm NAACP Race Racism reactions TedCruz Travel Twitter _2170698 Mon, 22 May 2023 16:50:49 +0000 Arizona, California and Nevada propose water cuts from Colorado River to avert forced cuts https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170711/-Arizona-California-and-Nevada-propose-water-cuts-from-Colorado-River-to-avert-forced-cuts?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Arizona, California and Nevada on Monday proposed a plan to significantly reduce their water use from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/colorado-river-water-west-california-arizona-5fefe545767b805900f4b967a7c8da25">the drought-stricken Colorado River</a> over the next three years. The plan would conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet of water from the 1,450-mile river that provides water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states, parts of Mexico and more than two dozen Native American tribes. At least half that amount — or 1.5 million acre-feet of water — would have to be conserved by 2024, the plan said. In exchange for temporarily using less water, cities, irrigation districts and Native American tribes in the three states will receive federal funding, though officials did not say how much funding individual users in the states would get. Specifics of the deal announced Monday were sparse, including exactly how the cuts would be spread out. JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, said in a statement his state would be responsible for 1.6 million acre-feet in cuts. No details were immediately provided on how Arizona and Nevada would split the rest. The Colorado River has been in crisis thanks to a multidecade drought in the West intensified by climate change, rising demand and overuse. Those pressures have sent water levels at key reservoirs along the river to unprecedented lows, though they have rebounded somewhat thanks to heavy precipitation and deep snowpack this winter. In recent years, the river's woes have forced the federal government to cut some water allocations, and to offer up billions of dollars to pay farmers and cities to pay farmers, cities and others to cut back. In April, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a plan that considered two ways to force cuts in the Colorado River supply for Arizona, Nevada and California, which make up the river's Lower Basin. One contemplated using an decades-old water priority system to reduce usage that would have benefitted California and some Native American tribes with senior water rights. The other would have been a percentage cut across the board to spare Arizona and Nevada – states with lower-priority rights – some pain. The Interior Department on Monday said it would pull back that proposal so that it could analyze the broader plan submitted by Western states and reissue it later this year. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Arizona Colorado ColoradoRiver LakeMead Nevada Water _2170711 Mon, 22 May 2023 16:05:26 +0000 Republican defends Trump and is asked, 'Do you realize how absurd that sounds?' https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170554/-GOP-congressman-insists-Trump-s-highly-partisan-debt-ceiling-posturing-is-not-partisan-at-all?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= In case you’re keeping track, we’ve now reached the point in the unmonitored, unguided hell simulation where Republican members of Congress are using the barmy brain nuggets Donald Trump drops on the daily and recycling them as talking points. Because Trump’s every utterance is genius, and like a frontiersman on his hardscrabble farmstead pulling hearty fistfuls of offal from hens who died in the dead of winter of some as-yet-unidentified bird flu, Republicans have decided to savor every last morsel of Hickory Farms All-Natural Offal ‘n’ Beak-Bits Summer Sausage. As you may recall, on May 10, when CNN opted to napalm our great nation with ipecac instead of <a href="https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2013/04/01/napalm" target="_blank">jellied gasoline</a>, Trump let loose a fusillade of feral, head-scratching nonsense that left Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/11/trump-cnn-town-hall-fact-check/" target="_blank">fact-checker Glenn Kessler</a> pining for an elysian future in which he’s secured part-time, minimum-wage employment as Chris Christie’s personal bathtub attendant. But Trump’s lies weren’t the only things on lurid display. He also said the U.S. <a href="https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/trump-green-lights-a-debt-default.html" target="_blank">“might as well” default on its debt</a> (which would naturally crater the economy, leading to a deep recession and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/debt-ceiling-breach-cut-millions-jobs-lose-employment/story?id=99423028#:~:text=millions%20of%20jobs.-,Here's%20who%20would%20lose%20employment%20first,job%20cuts%2C%20Moody's%20Analytics%20said." target="_blank">millions of lost jobs</a>) and that his previous insistence that the debt ceiling should never be used as negotiating leverage no longer applied because he was no longer president. Any which way you slice it, that’s a rancid hunk of bologna, and yet Republicans expect you to slurp it up through a straw. And Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida (you may remember him from his <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/byron-donalds-house-speaker-political-views-rcna64368" target="_blank">15 minutes in the spotlight as a GOP speaker candidate</a> back in January) believes you simply need to get accustomed to the taste. On Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd asked Donalds about Trump’s highly partisan, hyper-hypocritical statement. And Donalds turned the gaslight up to 11. RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/17/2169882/-CNN-chief-learns-all-the-wrong-lessons-from-Trump-town-hall">CNN chief learns all the wrong lessons from Trump 'town hall'</a> rss@dailykos.com (Aldous J Pennyfarthing) ByronDonalds ChuckTodd CNN cnntownhall DebtCeiling DonaldTrump MeetThePress PresidentBiden Recommended trump _2170554 Sun, 21 May 2023 16:52:22 +0000 Civil rights groups warn tourists about Florida in wake of 'hostile' laws https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170689/-Civil-rights-groups-warn-tourists-about-Florida-in-wake-of-hostile-laws?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The NAACP over the weekend issued a travel advisory for Florida, joining two other civil rights groups in warning potential tourists that recent laws and policies championed by <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ron-desantis">Gov. Ron DeSantis</a> and Florida lawmakers are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” The NAACP, long an advocate for Black Americans, joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state's largest job sectors. The warning approved Saturday by the NAACP's board of directors tells tourists that, before traveling to Florida, they should understand the state of Florida "devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” An email was sent Sunday morning to DeSantis' office seeking comment. The Republican governor is expected to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-president-new-hampshire-republican-80f4a1faed3632b14ae526ae966f3e07">announce a run</a> for the GOP presidential nomination this week. Florida is one of the most popular states in the U.S. for tourists, and tourism is one of its biggest industries. More than 137.5 million tourists visited Florida last year, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to Visit Florida, the state's tourism promotion agency. Tourism supports 1.6 million full-time and part-time jobs, and visitors spent $98.8 billion in Florida in 2019, the last year figures are available. Several of Florida's Democratic mayors were quick to say Sunday that their cities welcomed diversity and inclusion. “EVERYONE is always welcome and will be treated with dignity and respect,” tweeted Mayor Ken Welch of St. Petersburg in a message echoed by the mayor across the bay in Tampa. “That will never change, regardless of what happens in Tallahassee,” tweeted Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa. The NAACP's decision comes after the DeSantis' administration in January rejected the College Board’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/education-black-history-advanced-placement-8c0492552e59db4de3ec3cc8e35100c2">Advanced Placement African American Studies course</a>. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers also have pressed forward with measures that ban state colleges from having <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ron-desantis-florida-state-government-race-and-ethnicity-b1d847ddc5e1f136b17f254f71fd15dc">programs on diversity, equity and inclusion</a>, as well as critical race theory, and also passed the Stop WOKE Act that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. In its warning for Hispanic travelers considering a visit to Florida, LULAC cited a new law that prohibits local governments from providing money to organizations that issue identification cards to people illegally in the country and invalidates out-of-state driver’s licenses held by undocumented immigrants, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/florida-desantis-immigration-bill-74d3efde87fe376202ebda74bab123b8">among other things</a>. The law also requires hospitals that accept Medicaid to include a citizenship question on intake forms, which critics have said is intended to dissuade immigrants living in the U.S. illegally from seeking medical care. “The actions taken by Governor DeSantis have created a shadow of fear within communities across the state,” said Lydia Medrano, a LULAC vice president for the Southeast region. Recent efforts to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dont-say-gay-desantis-florida-gender-d3a9c91f4b5383a5bf6df6f7d8ff65b6">limit discussion on LGBTQ topics</a> in schools, the removal of books with gay characters from school libraries, a recent ban on gender-affirming care for minors, new <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-florida-desantis-07c1543fe28b6c09e777bec58de7640f">restrictions on abortion access</a> and a law allowing Floridians to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/guns-desantis-florida-government-ac7adbc200cc4c1bb429ea84357f73be" title="">carry concealed guns without a permit</a> contributed to Equality Florida's warning. “Taken in their totality, Florida’s slate of laws and policies targeting basic freedoms and rights pose a serious risk to the health and safety of those traveling to the state,” Equality Florida's advisory said. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Florida LGBTQ NAACP RonDeSantis _2170689 Mon, 22 May 2023 14:39:05 +0000 More women sue Texas, asking court to put emergency block on state's abortion law https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170676/-More-women-sue-Texas-asking-court-to-put-emergency-block-on-state-s-abortion-law?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= One woman had to carry her baby, missing much of her skull, for months knowing she'd bury her daughter soon after she was born. Another started mirroring the life-threatening symptoms that her baby was displaying while in the womb. An OB-GYN found herself secretly traveling to Colorado to abort her wanted pregnancy, marred by the diagnosis of a fatal fetal anomaly. All of the women were told they could not end their pregnancies in Texas, a state that has enacted some of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws. Now, they're asking a Texas court to put an emergency hold on some abortion restrictions, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/women-sue-texas-over-abortion-ban-632fad72e0f5b255a3a55274cd097fa9">joining a lawsuit launched earlier this year</a> by five other women who were denied abortions in the state, despite pregnancies they say endangered their health or lives. More than a dozen Texas women in total have joined the Center for Reproductive Rights' lawsuit against the state's law, which prohibits abortions unless a mother's life is at risk — an exception that is not clearly defined. Texas doctors who perform abortions risk life in prison and fines of up to $100,000, leaving many women with providers who are unwilling to even discuss terminating a pregnancy. “Our hope is that it will allow physicians at least a little more comfort when it comes to patients in obstetrical emergencies who really need an abortion where it's going to effect their health, fertility or life going forward,” Molly Duane, the lead attorney on the case, told The Associated Press. “Almost all of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit tell similar stories about their doctors saying, if not for this law, I'd give you an abortion right now.” The lawsuit serves as a nationwide model for abortion rights advocates to challenge strict new abortion laws states that have rolled out since the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade</a> last year. Sixteen states, including Texas, do not allow abortions when a fatal fetal anomaly is detected while six do not allow exceptions for the mother's health, according to an <a href="https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/a-review-of-exceptions-in-state-abortions-bans-implications-for-the-provision-of-abortion-services/">analysis by KFF, a health research organization</a>. Duane said the Center for Reproductive Rights is looking at filing similar lawsuits in other states, noting that they've heard from women across the country. Roughly 25 Texas women have contacted the organization about their own experiences since the initial lawsuit was filed in March. The women who joined the lawsuit describe being elated about finding out they were pregnant before the experience turned catastrophic. Jessica Bernardo and her husband spent years trying to conceive, even consulting fertility doctors, before finally become pregnant with a daughter, Emma, last July. Almost immediately, Bernardo was coughing so hard and often she would sometimes throw up. Fourteen weeks into the pregnancy, test results revealed her baby likely had Down Syndrome, so she consulted a specialist who gave her devastating news: Emma's heart was underdeveloped and she had a rare, deadly disorder called fetal anasarca, which causes fluid to build up in the body. “He handed me a tissue box,” recalled Bernardo, who lives in Frisco, Texas. “I thought maybe the worst thing he was going to tell us was that she's going to have Down Syndrome. Instead, he said, ‘I can tell you right away...she wouldn’t make it.'” The doctor warned her to watch out for high blood pressure and coughing, symptoms of Mirror syndrome, another rare condition where a mother “mirrors” the same problems the fetus is experiencing. With Bernardo's blood pressure numbers climbing, her OB-GYN conferred with the hospital's ethics board to see if she could end the pregnancy but was advised Bernardo wasn't sick enough. Bernardo spent $7,000 traveling to Seattle for an abortion a week later. Even if Emma made it through the pregnancy, doctors would have immediately needed to drain excess fluids from her body, only for her to survive a few hours or days, Bernardo said. “Reading about everything they would do sounded like complete treatment torture to a newborn that would not survive," she said. “Had I not received an abortion, my life would have very likely been on the line.” Other women facing similar situations have not had the financial resources to travel outside of the state. Samantha Casiano, a 29-year-old living in eastern Texas, found out halfway through her pregnancy last year that her daughter, Halo, had a rare diagnosis of anencephaly, where much of the skull and brain is missing. Her doctor told her she would have to continue with the pregnancy because of Texas law, even though her baby would not survive. With five children, including a goddaughter, at home she quickly realized she could not afford an out-of-state trip for an abortion. The next next few months of her pregnancy were spent trying to raise money for her daughter's impending funeral, soliciting donations through online websites and launching fundraisers to sell Mexican soup. Halo was born in April, living for only four hours. “I was so full of heartbreak and sadness, all at the same time,” Casiano said. Women in the lawsuit say they could not openly discuss abortion or labor induction with their doctors, instead asking their doctors discreetly if they should travel outside of the state. Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Dallas, never talked about her own abortion with her doctors after they discovered anencephaly on the baby's ultrasound during her third pregnancy last year. She worried her out-of-state trip to end the pregnancy could jeopardize her medical license or invite harassment against her and her husband, also an OB-GYN. But after one of Dennard's patients sued the state in March for having to travel to Colorado to abort a twin fetus diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disorder, she decided to go public, too. “There was an enormous amount of fear that I experienced afterward,” Dennard said. “It’s an additional way of feeling silenced. You feel you have to do it in secret and not tell anyone about it.” rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Abortion CenterforReproductiveRights JessicaBernado Texas _2170676 Mon, 22 May 2023 13:36:36 +0000 Morning Digest: How Wisconsin's new-look Supreme Court could put more House seats in play https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170287/-Morning-Digest-How-Wisconsin-s-new-look-Supreme-Court-could-put-more-House-seats-in-play?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from Daniel Donner, David Jarman, Steve Singiser, James Lambert and David Beard. <a href="https://thedownballot.captivate.fm/">Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast</a> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="//player.captivate.fm/show/b049910f-1c6e-4b96-8ecd-480b1764cb75/latest/" data-height="185">Embedded Content</a></div> <h4>Leading Off</h4> <a href="#1" name="1">●</a> WI-01, WI-08: While Republican Rep. Bryan Steil had no trouble winning reelection last year in a southeastern Wisconsin seat that only narrowly backed Donald Trump, one prominent Democrat thinks that 2024 could be very different―and he may be right, especially if the incoming progressive majority on the state Supreme Court strikes down the state's gerrymandered congressional map. A notable Democrat is also mulling a campaign to the northeast against Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher around Green Bay, but as we'll discuss, his 8th District would likely be a tough lift even with new boundaries. rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos Elections) BenSalango ChrisSununu CoryMason DailyKosElections DanielCameron DariusRadzius DefendingBluegrassValues DGA DKEMorningDigest Elections FloydBonner GabeGore GloriaJohnson GretaNeubauer JimClyburn KristinLyerly KY-Gov MarkPocan MarkSpreitzer MD-06 MemphisTNMayor NH-Gov NY-03 RebeccaMason SC-06 St.LouisMOCircuitAttorney TekeshaMartinez TipMcGuire TN-Sen VanTurner WI-01 WI-08 WV-Gov _2170287 Mon, 22 May 2023 12:00:16 +0000 Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Media coverage failure in the debt ceiling debacle https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170626/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-Media-coverage-failure-in-the-debt-ceiling-debacle?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <a href="https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/debt-limit-update-mccarthys-very" target="_blank" title="">Dan Pfeiffer</a>/”The Message Box” on Substack: <blockquote> Debt Limit Update: McCarthy's Very Weak Hand The Speaker is talking tough to appease the right, but he needs the Dems to bail him out Is this theater? Are we screwed? Should we panic? Buy gold? Bury our money in the backyard? The debt ceiling reports from the legacy media are nothing short of horrendous. And confusing. Much of it is laundering the viewpoints of the GOP leadership aides upon which Capitol Hill reporters depend for scoops. Their “journalism” excuses the irresponsible position of Republicans and puts all of the onus of preventing default on Joe Biden and the Democrats. I don’t blame anyone for being confused. </blockquote> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;I wish more of the coverage of debt ceiling negotiations focused less on internecine political dramas and more on the global economic consequences of default, as well as what House Republicans are actually demanding in exchange for not defaulting.&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Catherine Rampell (@crampell) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1660310028706803718?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 21, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I wish more of the coverage of debt ceiling negotiations focused less on internecine political dramas and more on the global economic consequences of default, as well as what House Republicans are actually demanding in exchange for not defaulting.— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) <a href="https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1660310028706803718?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Greg Dworkin) AbbreviatedPunditRound-up AbbreviatedPunditRoundUp APR _2170626 Mon, 22 May 2023 11:00:21 +0000 A potential 'Florida Man' primary is coming, and we are not ready https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/19/2170184/-A-potential-Florida-Man-primary-is-coming-and-we-are-not-ready?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= America is spiraling toward a “Florida Man” primary, and we’re not ready. With Ron DeSantis not yet an official candidate and Donald Trump still flipping through the index cards of potential nicknames for his just-up-the-road opponent, what we’ve seen of the coming storm makes one thing clear: The most extreme right-wing authoritarian candidates ever to hold office in the United States intend to run their primary by finding new ground on the right of their opponents. Both men might hold a finger to the political wind and determine that the center-right, a space now so abandoned that ghost towns feel sorry for it, offers plenty of room to construct a candidacy. A Republican shift to the middle might even give that party the thing that is currently a fading memory—a shot at winning the popular vote. They’re not going to go there. DeSantis is trying to run to the right of Trump. Trump is trying to run to the right of DeSantis. Both may momentarily agree, but only on issues where they can’t think of a more extreme position. But these two guys have a real instinct for the awful, so they won’t be pinned down for long. If America is lucky, the result will destroy the Republican Party for a generation. But no matter what, everyone is going to get hurt. rss@dailykos.com (Mark Sumner) DonaldTrump Election2024 RonDeSantis _2170184 Fri, 19 May 2023 16:36:35 +0000 Meta fined record $1.3 billion and ordered to stop sending European user data to US https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170673/-Meta-fined-record-1-3-billion-and-ordered-to-stop-sending-European-user-data-to-US?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/data-privacy-europe-business-government-surveillance-technology-32cd88d05897f31e5b4d1bcd3d1ade83" title="">decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears</a>. The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is the biggest since the EU's strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-996ef83cf56902aaeb1dfeef0cceb04b">Amazon's 746 million euro fine</a> in 2021 for data protection violations. Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold. “There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,” the company said. “This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.,” Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global and affairs, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement. It's yet another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013 when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint about Facebook’s handling of his data following former National Security Agency contractor <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-george-w-bush-edward-snowden-politics-57af1e21c0c14309a3684fc7695605c6">Edward Snowden’s revelations</a> of electronic surveillance by U.S. security agencies. That included the disclosure that Facebook gave the agencies access to the personal data of Europeans. The saga has highlighted the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-technology-data-privacy-ursula-von-der-leyen-european-commission-493ea47a4991b0c933bea2bbb47c2c6c">clash between Washington and Brussels</a> over the differences between Europe's strict view on data privacy and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law. The EU has been a global leader in reining in the power of Big Tech with a series of regulations <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-police-social-media-reform-52744e1d0f5b93a426f966138f2ccb52">forcing them police their platforms more strictly</a> and protect users' personal information. An agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-international-news-technology-united-states-business-74960a2c6af8b96a35df5afe35f9f84b">Privacy Shield was struck down in 2020</a> by the EU's top court, which said it didn’t do enough to protect residents from the U.S. government's electronic prying. Monday's decision confirmed that another tool to govern data transfers — stock legal contracts — was also invalid. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-technology-business-united-states-830590856518b586e1eeb2a3df69be35">Brussels and Washington signed a deal</a> last year on a reworked Privacy Shield that Meta could use, but the pact is awaiting a decision from European officials on whether it adequately protects data privacy. EU institutions have been reviewing the agreement, and the bloc's lawmakers this month called for improvements, saying the safeguards aren't strong enough. The Ireland’s Data Protection Commission handed down the fine as Meta’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant’s European headquarters is based in Dublin. The Irish watchdog said it gave Meta five months to stop sending European user data to the U.S. and six months to bring its data operations into compliance “by ceasing the unlawful processing, including storage, in the U.S." of European users' personal data transferred in violation of the bloc's privacy rules. If the new transatlantic privacy agreement takes effect before these deadlines, "our services can continue as they do today without any disruption or impact on users," Meta said. Schrems predicted that Meta has “no real chance” of getting the decision materially overturned. And a new privacy pact might not mean the end of Meta's troubles, because there's a good chance it could be tossed out by the EU's top court, he said. “Meta plans to rely on the new deal for transfers going forward, but this is likely not a permanent fix," Schrems said in a statement. "Unless U.S. surveillance laws gets fixed, Meta will likely have to keep EU data in the EU.” Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it will be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.” The social media company might have to carry out a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it's forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers, according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. Three others are in the European nations of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. Another is in Singapore. Other social media giants are facing pressure over their data practices. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-bytedance-china-biden-administration-14ef5f93dc2114e4ade110b2e85433fd" title="">TikTok has tried to soothe Western fears</a> about the Chinese-owned short video sharing app's potential cybersecurity risks with a $1.5 billion project to store U.S. user data on Oracle servers. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) EU Facebook MarkZuckerberg Meta _2170673 Mon, 22 May 2023 13:02:49 +0000 Tim Scott set to announce launch of his 2024 GOP presidential campaign https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170667/-Tim-Scott-set-to-announce-launch-of-his-2024-GOP-presidential-campaign?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= As he launches his presidential campaign on Monday, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is officially wading into a GOP primary battle already largely dominated by two commanding figures: former President <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> and Florida Gov. <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ron-desantis">Ron DeSantis</a>. Scott, the only Black Republican senator, will make his campaign announcement in his hometown of North Charleston after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-scott-2024-presidential-campaign-152d2ee680c9a98e7fd0a2a1cf328e3c">making it official last week</a> with the Federal Election Commission. The late morning event is taking place at Charleston Southern University, Scott’s alma mater and a private school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Then he'll spend Tuesday with donors in Charleston before a whirlwind, two-day campaign swing to Iowa and New Hampshire. Like others in the GOP race, including former United Nations Ambassador <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-running-for-president-f28052019e8ac3846cd125b3d9614d4f">Nikki Haley</a>, former Arkansas Gov. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/asa-hutchinson-president-2024-election-3a55855b1914d6e61338d1c8576a817f">Asa Hutchinson</a> and “Woke, Inc.” author <a href="https://apnews.com/article/religion-and-politics-united-states-government-2022-midterm-elections-ohio-e1c1cbe47763bd979b6b47557aee043d">Vivek Ramaswamy</a>, Scott will have to find a way to stand out in a field led by Trump and DeSantis, the latter of whom could announce his own bid as early as this week. But Scott's senior advisers note that political environments can shift over the course of a primary campaign, pointing to early in the 2016 race when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were seen as the top GOP candidates before Trump became the party's nominee. One way Scott, 57, hopes to make his mark is by leaning into more optimistic rhetoric than his conservative rivals. With his Christian faith an integral part of his political and personal story, Scott often quotes Scripture at his campaign events, weaving his reliance on spiritual guidance into his stump speech and even bestowing the name “Faith in America” on his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-scott-republican-president-2024-c0a791719fe735b09ec76f7801e74217">pre-launch listening tour.</a> In terms of Scott's political strength, his team points to his most recent Senate reelection in November, when Scott <a href="https://apnews.com/article/south-carolina-senate-race-2022-midterm-elections-41a9fcf9977d8d17dacc8921b412e51d">defeated his Democratic opponent</a> by more than 20 percentage points. Such overwhelming support in a state that votes early in the GOP's presidential nominating calendar bodes well for Scott's electability on a larger scale, his advisers say. There's also the matter of money. He will enter the 2024 race with more cash on hand than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history. He had $22 million left in his campaign bank account at the end of his 2022 campaign and plans to immediately transfer that to his presidential coffers. It's enough money, his team says, to keep Scott on the air with continuous TV ads in early voting states until the first round of votes next year. On many issues, Scott aligns with mainstream GOP positions. He wants to reduce government spending and restrict abortion, saying he would sign a federal law to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy if elected president. But Scott has pushed the party on some policing overhaul measures since the killing of George Floyd, and he has occasionally criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions. Throughout their disagreements, though, Scott has maintained a generally cordial relationship with Trump, saying in his book that the former president “listened intently” to his viewpoints on race-related issues. When he was appointed to the Senate by then-Gov. Nikki Haley in 2012, Scott became the first Black senator from the South since just after the Civil War. Winning a 2014 special election to serve out the remainder of his term made him the first Black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina since the Reconstruction era. He has long said his current term, which runs through 2029, would be his last. Scott rejects the notion that the country is inherently racist and has repudiated the teaching of critical race theory, an academic framework that presents the idea that the nation’s institutions maintain the dominance of white people. “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” Scott has said. “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.” If Scott is successful, he would be the first Black person to win the Republican presidential nomination and the second elected to the presidency, following Barack Obama in 2008. In a video announcing <a href="https://apnews.com/article/exploratory-committee-president-tim-scott-2024-b129664cb44862100e43e2930e75efb3">his exploratory committee</a> earlier this year, Scott positioned himself as the antidote to the “radical left: a self-made success story as the son of a single mother who overcame poverty. He also bemoaned Democratic leaders as needlessly dividing the country by fostering a “culture of grievance.” Other Republicans are still deciding whether to wade into the presidential race, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. President Joe Biden is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">seeking reelection</a>, a decision that has largely cleared the Democratic field. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) 2024 TimScott _2170667 Mon, 22 May 2023 12:49:31 +0000 Gun control, then and now: GOP and NRA actions over AR-15s continue to stall progress https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/19/2169925/-Gun-control-then-and-now-GOP-and-NRA-actions-over-AR-15s-continue-to-stall-progress?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <div style="text-align:start"> This is part two of a two-part series on this history of gun control policy. You can read part one <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2162777/edit" target="_blank">here</a>. Part one of this series looked at how the Thompson submachine gun, popularly known as the Tommy gun, was originally developed as a weapon of war and then marketed to law enforcement agencies and the military. But by the late 1920s, the Tommy gun was being used by organized crime gangs flush with money from bootlegging during the Prohibition Era. Public outrage was stirred by the use of Tommy guns in the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the 1931 shooting death of a 5-year-old boy in a botched gangland attack. The Tommy gun gained further notoriety as the weapon of choice in crime sprees carried out by Depression-era gangsters such as John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, “Baby Face” Nelson, and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Many states, including Texas, passed laws banning Tommy guns. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal on Crime spurred Congress to pass the 1934 National Firearms Act, which imposed criminal, regulatory, and tax requirements on the weapons favored by gangsters—machine guns, sawed off shotguns, and silencers. The National Rifle Association grudgingly supported the legislation which passed by a voice vote. In 1939, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the National Firearms Act. The act was effective in curbing the use of Tommy guns, and remains in place today. The act’s effectiveness was confirmed by Marc Follman, who tracks gun violence for Mother Jones, and curates a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data">database of mass shootings in America</a>, going back to 1982. He <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/06/30/484215890/prohibition-era-gang-violence-spurred-congress-to-pass-first-gun-law" target="_blank">told NPR in 2016</a> that none of the shootings is known to have involved a machine gun or fully automatic weapon. "You rarely hear any discussion of fully automatic weapons or machine guns," Follman told NPR. "They're just really not part of the conversation in the contemporary picture. They don't turn up in mass shootings." RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/15/2164093/-After-Kristi-Noem-tells-NRA-audience-they-re-more-than-just-old-white-guys-the-camera-points-to">After Kristi Noem tells NRA audience they're not just old white guys, the camera points to ...</a> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Charles Jay) AlCapone AR-15 BarackObama GeorgeWBush GunRegulations JohnDillinger NationalFirearmsAct NationalRifleAssociation RonaldReagan Tommygun _2169925 Fri, 19 May 2023 13:00:22 +0000 Ukraine Update: Bakhmut falls, Russia gains nothing but future misery https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2170516/-Ukraine-Update-Bakhmut-falls-Russia-gains-nothing-but-future-misery?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <div> <a name="update-1684692309000"></a> </div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684692309000"> <a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684692309000"> UPDATE: Sunday, May 21, 2023 · 6:05:09 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content"> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;⚡️Land Forces chief says Ukrainian troops may soon encircle Bakhmut.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Ukrainian troops keep advancing on the flanks and are approaching a &amp;quot;tactical encirclement&amp;quot; of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine&amp;#39;s Land Forces, reported on May 21.&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1660322531998302213?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 21, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">⚡️Land Forces chief says Ukrainian troops may soon encircle Bakhmut. Ukrainian troops keep advancing on the flanks and are approaching a "tactical encirclement" of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's Land Forces, reported on May 21.— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) <a href="https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1660322531998302213?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> Imagine being Prigozhin, and losing tens of thousands of men to get themselves surrounded.  </div> </div> <div> <a name="update-1684690712000"></a> </div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684690712000"> <a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684690712000"> UPDATE: Sunday, May 21, 2023 · 5:38:32 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content">Really looks like they want to go south, doesn’t it? Donetsk area getting hit hard as well. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Ukrainian strikes on Russian forces of various depths between May 15th and May 20th. &lt;a href="https://t.co/9JLLxUzOhW"&gt;pic.twitter.com/9JLLxUzOhW&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1660338413747175425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 21, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Ukrainian strikes on Russian forces of various depths between May 15th and May 20th. <a href="https://t.co/9JLLxUzOhW">pic.twitter.com/9JLLxUzOhW</a>— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1660338413747175425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> </div> </div> <div><a name="update-1684690273000"></a></div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684690273000"><a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684690273000">UPDATE: Sunday, May 21, 2023 · 5:31:13 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content"> Legit Dark Brandon moment:  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;JOURNALIST: Russia says giving Ukraine F-16s is a “colossal risk”&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;BIDEN: It is, for them &lt;a href="https://t.co/VB0QRKsHO0"&gt;https://t.co/VB0QRKsHO0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Business Ukraine mag (@Biz_Ukraine_Mag) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1660318713420152834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 21, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">JOURNALIST: Russia says giving Ukraine F-16s is a “colossal risk” BIDEN: It is, for them <a href="https://t.co/VB0QRKsHO0">https://t.co/VB0QRKsHO0</a>— Business Ukraine mag (@Biz_Ukraine_Mag) <a href="https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1660318713420152834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> Russia has truly lost all respect. Not even the civilians targeted by their rockets and missiles fear them anymore. It’s is universal disgust and defiance.  </div> </div> Ukraine might still have some lingering presence in Bakhmut, but for all practical purposes, Bakhmut has fallen. But don’t worry. As a result, Russia is now in a worse position than before.  rss@dailykos.com (kos) Bakhmut Donetsk Russia Starobilsk Svatove Ukraine War _2170516 Sun, 21 May 2023 04:44:38 +0000 DeSantis campaign in turmoil after Disney refuses to repair candidate https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/19/2170086/-DeSantis-campaign-in-turmoil-after-Disney-refuses-to-repair-candidate?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' planned presidential campaign was upended on Thursday when the Walt Disney Company told top campaign staff that Disney engineers would no longer repair or maintain the candidate's animatronic systems. The move comes after Disney announced <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/18/2170060/-Ron-DeSantis-clown-car-drives-Disney-jobs-out-of-Florida">the cancellation of a $1 billion planned Orlando development</a> in the midst of a legal feud between the company and the Florida governor's office. The feud began after Florida lawmakers retaliated against Disney, one of the state's top employers, for statements opposing the Republican-backed "Don't Say Gay" legislation DeSantis signed earlier this year. Disney’s “Imagineering” department, which is responsible for developing and maintaining the special effects and complex moving “animatronics” used in the company’s theme parks, was going to be housed at the planned Florida development known as Lake Nona Town Center. A company source involved with the decision cited the feud with DeSantis, noting that the cancellation of Imagineering's planned relocation of 1,000 employees from California to Florida would make it difficult for current Orlando-based engineers to provide engineering and repair assistance to the DeSantis campaign. "It's hard enough to stay on top of every animatronic figure in every ride in our Orlando parks," said the source. "The company decided it couldn't afford to keep sending imagineers to repair DeSantis every time his campaign hauls him to Iowa or other key campaign states." rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Disney Florida Republicans RonDeSantis Satire _2170086 Fri, 19 May 2023 15:50:10 +0000 Trump and Republicans are terrified of their signature issue: Abortion bans https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2170063/-Trump-and-Republicans-are-terrified-of-their-signature-issue-Abortion-bans?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= North Carolina Republicans cemented their legislative supermajority in April when Rep. Tricia Cotham, who ran as a Democrat on a pro-choice platform, unexpectedly switched parties, giving Republicans veto-proof majorities in both chambers. By mid-May, Tar Heel Republicans had unveiled their 12-week abortion ban, passed it, and jammed Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of it, despite the fact that<a href="https://twitter.com/NC_Governor/status/1654285899360870402" title=""> four Republicans who voted yea</a> (including Cotham) had pledged during their campaigns to protect abortion access. Let North Carolina serve as a cautionary tale for the nation: As soon as Republicans have the power to enact an abortion ban, they will, regardless of what they tell voters. (Just as several Supreme Court nominees leapt at the chance to strike down Roe v. Wade despite previously testifying that it was settled law.) After pulling a bait-and-switch, Tar Heel Republicans are<a href="https://www.wral.com/story/just-the-beginning-nc-republicans-say-more-abortion-restrictions-possible-after-2024-elections/20866150/#:~:text=North%20Carolina's%20new%20abortion%20restrictions,are%20in%20the%202024%20elections."> already strategizing</a> about enacting tighter restrictions if they gain legislative seats or reclaim the governor's mansion next year. rss@dailykos.com (Kerry Eleveld) 12-WeekBan 15-WeekBan Abortion Anti-Abortion DonaldTrump nationalabortionban NorthCarolina Pro-Choice reproductivefreedom Republicans SusanBAnthony Zealotry _2170063 Sat, 20 May 2023 15:00:26 +0000 Gun control, then and now: Congress once dealt with gangsters' Tommy guns to save American lives https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2162777/-Gun-control-then-and-now-Congress-once-dealt-with-gangsters-Tommy-guns-to-save-American-lives?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <div style="text-align:start"> This two-part series will explore the history of gun control policy. The first looks at how the government effectively dealt with machine guns in the 1930s to save Americans’ lives. Once upon a time in America, public outrage over gangsters like John Dillinger blazing away with Tommy guns spurred Congress to approve the <a href="https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/national-firearms-act" target="_blank">1934 National Firearms Act,</a> the first serious federal gun control legislation ever passed to protect American lives. The act was even passed with the grudging support of the National Rifle Association. The legislation imposed criminal, regulatory, and tax requirements on the weapons favored by gangsters: machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, and silencers. The Thompson submachine gun, better known as the Tommy gun, was originally designed as a weapon of war like the AR-15. Both the Tommy gun and the AR-15 are capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute, but the AR-15 is far more lethal, even though it's semi-automatic. That's because the Tommy gun fired .45 caliber pistol rounds, while the AR-15 uses high-velocity, body-shredding .223 caliber ammunition. It’s been almost 90 years since Congress passed the National Firearms Act, which succeeded in removing machine guns from the hands of gangsters. But despite public outrage over the rising number of mass killings, Congress seems incapable of taking any effective action to stem the carnage caused by assault weapons like the AR-15. That’s because Republican lawmakers remain subservient to the NRA, which now has become little more than an influential lobbying group for gun manufacturers. RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/21/2165015/-America-is-discovering-the-true-meaning-of-an-armed-society-is-a-polite-society">America discovers the true meaning of 'an armed society is a polite society'</a> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Charles Jay) AlCapone AR-15 BonnieandClyde FranklinDelanoRoosevelt gangsters GunRegulations JohnDillinger NationalFirearmsAct NationalRifleAssociation StValentineDaysMassacre Tommygun _2162777 Sat, 20 May 2023 16:30:14 +0000 Surprise! Most medical students surveyed say they won't practice in states with abortion bans https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/19/2170299/-Surprise-Most-medical-students-surveyed-say-they-won-t-practice-in-states-with-abortion-bans?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= In survey results that should surprise no one: most third- and fourth-year medical students planning to practice in obstetrics and gynecology as well as prospective surgeons and specialists in internal medicine say they do not plan to practice in states that have banned or restricted abortion. As reported by Erika Edwards for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/states-abortion-bans-young-doctors-survey-rcna84899" target="_blank" title="">NBC News</a>, the survey of 494 medical students in 32 states was conducted by third-year medical student Ariana Traub, currently attending Emory University’s School of Medicine. The survey revealed 57.9% of respondents “were unlikely or very unlikely to apply to a single residency program in a state with abortion restrictions,” while over 76% said that access to abortion care would influence their decision on where they would pursue their residencies. rss@dailykos.com (Dartagnan) Abortion Doctors NBC OBGYN Pro-Choice Recommended RepublicanParty SupremeCourt _2170299 Fri, 19 May 2023 23:59:25 +0000 Cartoon: Hello it's me https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170545/-Cartoon-Hello-it-s-me?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Join the Friends of Tom Tomorrow, Sparky, Blinky, and TMW (FOTOTOSPABLITOMOW) who help keep this work possible by subscribing to my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://thismodernworld.com/subscriptions" target="_blank">Sparky’s List!</a> You get the cartoon a day early, plus a rambling newsletter, but on the plus side, it’s pretty cheap! You can get it in your inbox or read it on Patreon, the content is the same either way. rss@dailykos.com (Tom Tomorrow) Anxiety _2170545 Mon, 22 May 2023 12:00:18 +0000 Cheers and Jeers: Monday https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/22/2170263/-Cheers-and-Jeers-Monday?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Cheers to the "Mayor of Castro Street" Today marks the 93rd birthday of the late San Francisco District Supervisor and gay rights (aka civil rights) pioneer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk" target="_blank" title="">Harvey Milk</a>. Not coincidentally, today is also the fourteenth annual <a href="https://milkfoundation.org/harvey-in-schools/text-of-californias-annual-harvey-milk-day-legislation" target="_blank">Harvey Milk Day</a>. <blockquote> “It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions.”   <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Harvey Milk Day (May 22) graphic" src="https://images.dailykos.com/images/544432/large/Harvey_Milk_Day.png?1526913741" title="Harvey Milk Day (May 22) graphic"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> </div> “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.” </blockquote> He was a talented politician—smart, witty, eloquent, tireless, eager to learn from his early mistakes, but not without his flaws and personal demons. He understood well the power of grassroots campaigning and consensus-building. Continued... rss@dailykos.com (Bill in Portland Maine) CheersandJeers _2170263 Mon, 22 May 2023 11:50:43 +0000 NYC skyscrapers turning to carbon capture to lessen climate change https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2169434/-NYC-skyscrapers-turning-to-carbon-capture-to-lessen-climate-change?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= From the outside, the residential high-rise on Manhattan's Upper West Side looks pretty much like any other luxury building: A doorman greets visitors in a spacious lobby adorned with tapestry and marble. Yet just below in the basement is an unusual set of equipment that no other building in New York City — indeed few in the world — can claim. In an effort to drastically reduce the 30-story building's emissions, the owners have installed a maze of twisting pipes and tanks that collect carbon dioxide from the massive, gas-fired boilers in the basement before it goes to the chimney and is released into the air. The goal is to stop that climate-warming gas from entering the atmosphere. And there's a dire need for reducing emissions from skyscrapers like these in such a vertical city. Buildings are by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions here, roughly two-thirds, according to the city buildings department. New York state’s buildings also emit more air pollution than any other state's. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) CarbonQuest ClimateChange _2169434 Sun, 21 May 2023 22:30:10 +0000 Connecticut high court nominee who supported Amy Coney Barrett withdraws https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170297/-Connecticut-high-court-nominee-who-supported-Amy-Coney-Barrett-withdraws?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A nominee to Connecticut’s highest court withdrew her name from consideration Friday after state lawmakers raised questions about a letter she signed in 2017 supporting Amy Coney Barrett for a federal appeals court position. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont released a statement saying Sandra Slack Glover had notified him of her decision to step aside. His announcement came four days after his nominee, a federal prosecutor with no judicial experience, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/amy-coney-barrett-letter-2dab347caf728aee38b2d6248845c463" title="">appeared at a confirmation hearing</a> before the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee. In an unusual move, the panel had held off from voting on her confirmation. Throughout the week, it become increasingly doubtful Glover had enough support to clear a vote of the committee, despite urgings by the Lamont administration. “Attorney Sandra Slack Glover would have been an extraordinary justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court" Lamont said in a written statement. “I stand by that, and I stand by her as a lawyer of experience, character, and compassion, while respecting her decision today to withdraw from consideration.” Email and phone messages were left seeking comment with Glover. Lamont said he will consider other candidates who share his “values” and who are “dedicated to the principles of justice equality and fairness under the law” in the coming months. In January, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, also had to find a replacement for her nominee to lead the state's highest court after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-new-york-city-united-states-senate-kathy-hochul-721f32511c937f2dcfd41ce86c396243">he was rejected</a> by a state Senate panel. The vote came after weeks of criticism from progressive activists and union officials about the judge’s record. Glover tried to assure Connecticut lawmakers that she would not have signed the 2017 letter if she knew Barrett would later vote to overturn Roe v. Wade abortion protections as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Glover had said she wasn’t “going to demonize” Barrett, “but when I look at that letter now ... I’m no longer comfortable with some of those statements. “But I also believed, clearly naively at this point, I thought there were guardrails,” she said, referring to judges’ respect for legal precedents. “And I thought the lower court judges were constrained. I thought the Supreme Court was constrained. And I was wrong. And looking back and knowing what I now know, I shouldn’t have signed it.” Glover said she was a firm supporter of abortion rights, from the perspectives of both a woman and a lawyer. Besides her position on Roe vs. Wade, lawmakers questioned her lack of experience as a judge. “Attorney Sandra Slack Glover faced a thorough vetting from the Judiciary Committee and many members felt there were unanswered questions that put her confirmation in jeopardy,” said Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, the committee co-chairman. “While Attorney Glover is an experienced prosecutor and talented attorney, I respect her decision to withdraw her name from consideration to become a justice of our highest court.” rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Abortion AmyConeyBarrett Connecticut NedLamont RoevWade SandraSlackGlover SCOTUS _2170297 Sun, 21 May 2023 21:00:13 +0000 The Downballot: Another kick-ass election night for Democrats (transcript) https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/18/2170018/-The-Downballot-Another-kick-ass-election-night-for-Democrats-transcript?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Hell yeah! Democrats and progressives simply crushed it from coast to coast on Tuesday night, so co-hosts David Nir and David Beard are devoting <a href="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/4a0a6bd3-b16f-476c-9845-a19851ddff30" target="_blank" title="">this week's entire episode of "The Downballot"</a> to reveling in all the highlights. At the very top of the list is Jacksonville, where Democrats won the mayor's race for just the second time in three decades—and gave the Florida Democratic Party a much-needed shot in the arm. Republicans also lost the mayor's office in the longtime conservative bastion of Colorado Springs for the first time since the city began holding direct elections for the job 45 years ago. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="https://player.captivate.fm/episode/4a0a6bd3-b16f-476c-9845-a19851ddff30" data-height="185" data-frameborder="no">Embedded Content</a></div> But it doesn't stop there. Democrats held a critical seat in a special election for the Pennsylvania state House to preserve their one-seat majority in the chamber. The party's left flank also had a strong showing in Pittsburgh's Allegheny County, nominating an outspoken progressive for county executive and defeating an anti-reform incumbent for district attorney. New Hampshire Democrats, meanwhile, romped in a special election for their own state House, a positive sign for their chances of taking it back in 2024—if not sooner. rss@dailykos.com (The Downballot) Elections GoodNews Podcast TheDownballot weekly _2170018 Thu, 18 May 2023 16:12:27 +0000 Group accused of making up story about homeless vets being evicted to make room for migrants https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170307/-Group-accused-of-making-up-story-about-homeless-vets-being-evicted-to-make-room-for-migrants?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The founder of a nonprofit group has been accused of fabricating a story about homeless military veterans being evicted from a New York hotel to make room for migrants, a tale that stoked days of outrage on cable news networks. One Republican lawmaker in New York who helped spread the story is now calling for an investigation, saying he and others were duped. The uproar began after New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, bused a small group of asylum seekers to a suburban hotel as the city's homeless shelter system struggled to accommodate an influx of migrants from the U.S. border with Mexico. The group's transfer prompted a political backlash from Republican county officials, who accused the mayor of trying to offload his problems on unprepared communities. Then, the founder of a small charity in the area added an explosive claim: To make way for the migrants, a hotel in Newburgh, New York, evicted nearly two dozen homeless veterans. That story, told by Yerik Israel Toney Foundation chief executive Sharon Toney-Finch, was picked up May 12 by The New York Post and quickly followed by Fox News, Newsmax and other conservative news outlets. The Post on Friday published <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/18/advocate-lied-about-vets-getting-kicked-out-of-ny-hotels-for-migrants-pol/" title="">a follow-up story</a> reporting on the latest development. “Our veterans have been placed in another hotel due to what’s going on with the immigrants,’’ Toney-Finch told the Post, saying her group had made arrangements to find alternative lodging. “We didn’t waste any time." State Assemblyman Brian Maher, a Republican, introduced legislation that would prohibit the displacement of homeless veterans. In an appearance on Fox News, he called the purported evictions an “absolute embarrassment on all fronts.” Cracks in the story emerged after an investigation by a local newspaper, the Mid Hudson News. The managers of the hotel <a href="https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/05/18/questions-remain-as-to-if-vets-were-displaced-from-hotel-by-asylum-seekers-2/">told the paper</a> the story wasn't true. A receipt purporting to show that the Crossroads Hotel had been paid $37,800 to house the veterans appeared to have been sloppily doctored. <a href="https://midhudsonnews.com/2023/05/19/homeless-men-recruited-for-veteran-hotel-scam/">In a follow-up report Friday</a>, the Mid-Hudson News reported that several men staying at a homeless shelter in Poughkeepsie, New York, had come forward to say they were recruited to pretend they were among the veterans kicked out of the hotel. The paper quoted some of the men as saying they were offered $200, food and alcohol to take part in the ruse. They said they met with Toney-Finch, then participated in a meeting at a veterans center in Orange County with local chamber of commerce officials. Toney-Finch denied giving any money to the men. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, she declined to say directly that her story was not true, but she suggested that a misunderstanding might have led to confusion. “We should have verified better,” she said. She abruptly ended the phone call when pressed for details. Maher said in a written statement that he had a conversation with Toney-Finch on Thursday where he learned that the story about homeless veterans being displaced was false. “The YIT Foundation purports to protect and support veterans, but the dishonest claims and fabrication of the facts by YIT does enormous harm to our homeless veterans by creating mistrust," Maher said, referring to the foundation by its shortened name. “I am calling for an immediate investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s office and the Orange County District Attorney into the YIT Foundation based on the new information that came to light today.” “While I believed Sharon was telling the truth, I do want to apologize for those that have been negatively impacted since this news broke," he added. New York City's mayor also called for an investigation into what he called a “fraudulent claim.” “Instead of stepping up, we’re seeing hateful language and outright lies,” Adams said in a Twitter post. On its website, the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation advertises its focus as helping raise awareness of premature births and assisting families with transportation and lodging while their infants are in neonatal intensive care units. It also says it helps “homeless and low-income military service veterans in need of living assistance.” New York says more than 65,000 migrants have arrived in the city over the past year, with the first of them bused by Republican governors in border states to draw attention to their displeasure over federal border policies. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) FakeNews YerikIsraelToneyFoundation _2170307 Sun, 21 May 2023 19:30:10 +0000 Minnesota governor signs gun safety measures: red flag law, expanded background checks https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170303/-Minnesota-governor-signs-gun-safety-measures-red-flag-law-expanded-background-checks?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed two <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-control-safety-minnesota-legislature-senate-house-5982edf49e4f20071b08d81b1c8b6208">gun safety measures</a> into law Friday afternoon, aligning his battleground state with others nationally that have taken steps to keep guns out of the hands of people in crisis and criminals. Gabby Giffords — a former Democratic congresswoman who became a gun safety campaigner after she was shot in the head in 2011 in Tucson, Arizona — gave a short speech to the cheering crowd at the ceremony. Because of the severe brain injury she suffered, she had to re-learn how to walk and talk. “Stopping gun violence takes courage,” Giffords said. “Now is the time to come together. Be responsible. Democrat, Republican, independent — we must never stop fight!" Moments later, Walz signed a broad <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-legislature-gun-control-safety-mass-shootings-red-flag-laws-49626cd868bab73c078d42ad40c8b193">public safety bill</a> that included the two gun measures: a “red flag law” and expanded background checks for gun transfers. The red flag law allows authorities to ask courts for “extreme risk protection orders” to temporarily take guns away from people deemed to be an imminent threat to others or themselves. The governor looked at the children, adults and cameras that filled the ornate room in the State Capitol and said: “There’s a reason the room is so full — because the vast majority of Minnesotans have been waiting too damn long for this day!" People wearing t-shirts that said “Gun Owners for Safety” and “Moms Demand Action” clapped and cheered. Walz continued, saying the measures “are two very simple, common sense issues” that have not been properly debated by the state’s lawmakers for decades. The former Minnesota Senate GOP majority <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-legislature-taxes-guns-abortion-5dce5279bc06f1be00cb4041dc8dca37">prevented much discussion</a> of similar proposals in their body over the last several years. But Democrats gained a one-seat Senate majority in the November elections to win the trifecta — control of both chambers and the governor’s office — for the first time in eight years. The gun safety measures by themselves would have been a tough vote for several rural Democrats in the Senate. But putting the measures in the final broader public safety bill may have given them enough political cover to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-control-safety-minnesota-legislature-senate-house-5982edf49e4f20071b08d81b1c8b6208">vote yes last week.</a> Supporters said the policies are the beginning — not the end — of an effort to protect people across the state and prevent mass shootings at schools, grocery stores, movie theaters and everywhere else. Opponents say the measures infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and that the policies will be ineffective at lowering crime or suicide rates. Rob Doar, a lobbyist with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said in an interview that the policies are more likely to criminalize “common conduct among peaceful gun owners” — like loaning firearms between friends or hunting partners — than they are to curb the illicit gun market. “Really, it comes down to how these are applied,” Doar said. “If we see a clear violation of somebody’s due process rights, then we’ll certainly take legal action.” At least <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-us-democratic-party-republican-minnesota-gun-5370d479bcf48ad584117adab2f75cbc">19 states</a> have red flag laws, but each new mass shooting seems to widen the political divide on who should be allowed to have guns and what types should be permitted. Disputes over gun laws on the books <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oregon-portland-gun-politics-24e2f1a143a23ea099444c0088f0057d" title="">often wind up in court</a> because of constitutional issues. While red flag laws are touted as a powerful tool to stop gun violence before it happens, an Associated Press analysis in September found that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-highland-park-july-4-gun-violence-chicago-politics-5165bbcde8771ebf09e7641674d0de9a">they are barely used</a> in the states where they exist. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) GabbyGiffords Guns Minnesota momsdemand TimWalz _2170303 Sun, 21 May 2023 17:30:12 +0000 Tensions in heavily GOP Tenn. county after conservative takeover reflect wider battle over elections https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170555/-Tensions-in-heavily-GOP-Tenn-county-after-conservative-takeover-reflect-wider-battle-over-elections?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Shortly after being sworn in last fall, the new majority of the Sumner County Commission in Tennessee acted to update one of its official documents. The new version said county operations would not only be orderly and efficient, but “most importantly reflective of the Judeo-Christian values inherent in the nation’s founding.” It was an important moment for the 14 commissioners who had campaigned under the banner of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans. The group had waged a political war on fellow Republicans they viewed as insufficiently conservative in this fast-growing region north of Nashville during a bitter primary a few months before. Since taking control, that majority has halted plans for a new building, rejected federal grants and tried to give away a historical property, actions it said were in line with its commitment to fiscal responsibility, protecting property owners and managing growth. The group also has been involved in an escalating feud with the county’s election commission in ways that have prompted concerns about whether preparations for the 2024 presidential election will be affected. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Elections SumnerCounty Tennessee _2170555 Sun, 21 May 2023 14:59:09 +0000 Incredible shrinking lakes: Humans, climate change, diversion costs trillions of gallons annually https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170559/-Incredible-shrinking-lakes-Humans-climate-change-diversion-costs-trillions-of-gallons-annually?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=  <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment">Climate change</a> 's hotter <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-global-threshold-el-nino-22b6f305ee6117f16c6a0ed22e9effb3">temperatures</a> and society's diversion of water have been shrinking the world's lakes by trillions of gallons of water a year since the early 1990s, a new study finds. A close examination of nearly 2,000 of the world's largest lakes found they are losing about 5.7 trillion gallons (21.5 trillion liters) a year. That means from 1992 to 2020, the world lost the equivalent of 17 Lake Meads, America's largest reservoir, in Nevada. It's also roughly equal to how much water the United States used in an entire year in 2015. Even lakes in areas getting more rainfall are shriveling. That's because of both a thirstier atmosphere from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-arizona-nevada-california-climate-and-environment-79b44a7dec35c3529540c11b5965c8ac">warmer air sucking up more water in evaporation</a>, and a thirsty society that is diverting water from lakes to agriculture, power plants and drinking supplies, according to a study in Thursday's <a href="https://www.science.org/">journal Science</a>. Authors also cited a third reason they called more natural, with water shrinking because of rainfall pattern and river runoff changes, but even that may have a climate change component. That's the main cause for Iran's Lake Urmia to lose about 277 billion gallons (1.05 trillion liters) a year, the study said. The declining lakes don't mean places are suddenly going to go without drinking water, but it may lead to more competition for lake water, which is also used in hydroelectric power and recreation such as boating, the study authors said. “More than half of the decline is primarily attributable to human consumption or indirect human signals through climate warming,” said study lead author Fangfang Yao, a climate scientist at the University of Colorado. The diversion of water from lakes — a direct human cause of shrinkage — is probably larger and more noticeable because it is “very acute, very local and it has the capability of really changing the landscape,” said co-author Ben Livneh, a University of Colorado hydrologist. But the indirect human shrinking, from warmer air due to climate change, “is this global blanketing effect that kind of affects everything or more places,” Livneh said. California's <a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2013/12/06/mining-mono-lakes-rich-store-of-climate-history/">Mono Lake</a> is a good example of this type of shrinking, Yao said. Even areas that are getting wetter because of climate change are losing lake water because hotter air is sucking more moisture out of the lakes. And that means more water in the air, which can fall as rain or snow but “may end up falling as rain far away, outside the basin where it evaporated or even over the ocean," Livneh said in an email. Yao, Livneh and colleagues used almost 30 years of satellite observation, climate data and computer simulation to figure out what's happening to lakes and found more than half of them have shrunk so much that it is statistically significant and not random. In the United States, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lake-mead-drought-photo-gallery-abab298019a44aef0181ad79aad12ab9">Lake Mead</a> lost two-thirds of its water between 1992 and 2020, while the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-lakes-droughts-utah-salt-lake-city-80ae45684b3342799132a4b1357e29d1">Great Salt Lake</a> also shrank noticeably, Yao said. The Great Lakes dropped considerably from 1992 to 2013 then plateaued and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oh-state-wire-lakes-c1beb3c779fd4d723a771abad81a6819">then increased.</a> Another problem is that lakes are filling with sediment or dirt from upstream rivers. Scientists have long known about the problems of climate change, diversion and sedimentation, “however the complete quantification of water storage variations for large lakes that Yao and colleagues provide is new” and it creates "a much more complete picture'' than past research has, said University of North Carolina hydrology professor Tamlin Pavelsky, who wasn't part of the study. “I’m generally most worried about lakes that are ecologically important and in populated areas without a lot of other good sources of water,” Pavelsky said in an email. “Lake Urmia in Iran, the Dead Sea, the Salton Sea ... these are all worrisome.” It's likely to get worse as society looks for more water and more reservoirs with a growing population and a warmer Earth, said UCLA climate hydrologist Park Williams, who wasn't part of the study. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) ClimateChange LakeMead Lakes Water _2170559 Sun, 21 May 2023 16:02:28 +0000 Biden: GOP must move off 'extreme' positions, no debt limit deal solely on its 'partisan terms' https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170558/-Biden-GOP-must-move-off-extreme-positions-no-debt-limit-deal-solely-on-its-partisan-terms?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= President Joe Biden said Sunday that Republicans in the U.S. House must move off their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/speaker-mccarthy-debt-biden-republicans-d4995f10a26d6c8bfa89a2bbfd1de93c">"extreme positions"</a> on the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-mccarthy-biden-default-negotiations-1b97de28d26b85da268cfd1c1e4a986a" title="">now-stalled talks</a> over raising <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-debt-limit-coin-constitution-mccarthy-77be7f00b81cebec44fbaf807b9642ff" title="">America's debt limit</a> and that there would be no agreement to avert a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-default-government-shutdown-explainer-b38474f210e519aeb3f48107ca2657ba" title="">catastrophic default</a> only on their terms. In an effort to get negotiations back on track, Biden was set to call U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from Air Force One on the way back to Washington after a Group of Seven summit in Japan, where world leaders expressed concern about the dire global ramifications if the United States were to be unable to meet its financial obligations. “Let’s find a place where we can find common ground,” McCarthy said a few hours later from the U.S. Capitol, adding he expected to hear from the president by late morning Eastern time. Biden made clear at his closing news conference before leaving Hiroshima that “it's time for Republicans to accept that there is no deal to be made solely, solely, on their partisan terms.” He said he had done his part in attempting to raise the borrowing limit so the U.S. government can keep paying its bills, by agreeing to significant cuts in spending. “Now it’s time for the other side to move from their extreme position." Biden had been scheduled to travel from Hiroshima to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-pacific-debt-limit-papua-new-guinea-434b263a1bcc4320a18c08ba6bf5828c">Papua New Guinea</a> and Australia, but <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-papua-new-guinea-australia-debt-limit-b2b82fbb82d829f0b8bae87bef741d63">cut short his trip</a> in light of the strained negotiations with Capitol Hill. Biden's Treasury Department has said it could run out of cash as soon as June 1, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday, “I think that that’s a hard deadline.” Even with a new wave of tax revenue expected soon, perhaps giving Washington more time to negotiate, she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that "the odds of reaching June 15, while being able to pay all of our bills, is quite low.” With that time pressure in mind, Biden said it was his guess that McCarthy would "want to deal directly with me in making sure we’re all on the same page." A compromise remained within reach, the president said, despite their differences. “I’m hoping that Speaker McCarthy is just waiting to negotiate with me when I get home," he said. “I’m waiting to find out.” GOP lawmakers are holding tight to demands for sharp spending cuts, rejecting the alternatives proposed by the White House for reducing deficits. “Nothing’s agreed to at all. But all the discussions we had before, I felt that we were at a place where we could agree together that we would have compromise,” McCarthy said on Fox News Channel's “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Now the president, even though he was overseas, thought to change places.” The speaker later told reporter: “We’ve got 11 days ago to go. We got a pass it in the House, in the Senate. Let’s just be responsible." <a href="https://apnews.com/article/debt-limit-mccarthy-biden-default-negotiations-1b97de28d26b85da268cfd1c1e4a986a">Republicans want work requirements on the Medicaid</a> health care program, though the Biden administration has countered that millions of people could lose coverage. The GOP additionally introduced new cuts to food aid by restricting states’ ability to waive work requirements in places with high joblessness. That idea, when floated under President Donald Trump, was estimated to cause 700,000 people to lose their food benefits. GOP lawmakers are also seeking cuts in IRS money and asking the White House to accept parts of their proposed immigration overhaul. The White House has countered by keeping defense and nondefense spending flat next year, which would save $90 billion in the 2024 budget year and $1 trillion over 10 years. “I think that we can reach an agreement,” Biden said, though he added this about Republicans: "I can’t guarantee that they wouldn’t force a default by doing something outrageous.” Republicans had also rejected White House proposals to raise revenues in order to further lower deficits. Among the proposals the GOP objects to are policies that would enable Medicare to pay less for prescription drugs and the closing of a dozen tax loopholes. Republicans have refused to roll back the Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and wealthy households as Biden’s own budget has proposed. Biden, nonetheless, insisted that “revenue is not off the table.” For months, Biden had refused to engage in talks over the debt limit, contending that Republicans in Congress were trying to use the borrowing limit vote as leverage to extract administration concessions on other policy priorities. But with the June 1 X-date and Republicans putting their own legislation on the table, the White House launched talks on a budget deal that could accompany an increase in the debt limit. Biden's decision to set up a call with McCarthy came after another start-stop day with no outward signs of progress. Food was brought to the negotiating room at the Capitol on Saturday morning, only to be carted away hours later. Talks, though, could resume later Sunday after the Biden-McCarthy conversation. The president tried to assure leaders attending the meeting of the world’s most powerful democracies that the United States would not default. U.S. officials said leaders were concerned, but largely confident that Biden and American lawmakers would resolve the crisis. The president, though, said he was ruling out the possibility of taking action on his own to avoid a default. Any such steps, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/14th-amendment-biden-debt-ceiling-explained-92ebc0db703d49eab2c91d4d4a354cdf">suggestions to invoke the 14th Amendment</a> as a solution, would become tied up in the courts. “That’s a question that I think is unresolved," Biden said, adding he hopes to try to get the judiciary to weigh in on the notion for the future. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) DebtCeiling JoeBiden KevinMcCarthy _2170558 Sun, 21 May 2023 15:12:39 +0000 Black Music Sunday: Celebrating Gladys Knight's 7-decade career with 7 days of her music https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2169408/-Black-Music-Sunday-Celebrating-Gladys-Knight-s-7-decade-career-with-7-days-of-her-music?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Seven seems to be a very lucky number for Gladys Knight—who has had an amazing career in music, with a <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/135244-Gladys-Knight?sort=year%2Casc&limit=250&page=1" target="_blank">discography</a> to match her list of awards and honors. That list includes seven Grammys, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honors, and a National Medal of Arts.  Knight, dubbed “The Empress of Soul,” has been singing her heart out and capturing the love of audiences around the globe for over seven decades, since the age of seven. Born on May 28, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, the Empress celebrates her 79th birthday next Sunday. Given the amazing amount of music she has recorded—with <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/30135-Gladys-Knight-And-The-Pips" target="_blank">The Pips,</a> as a soloist, and<a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/135244-Gladys-Knight" target="_blank" title=""> with other music greats</a>—it’s just not possible to properly celebrate her on just one day. Seven days seems about right, so while Knight finishes up her 78th year, I’m going to be playing her tunes every day this week—starting today.  Join me! <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/tags/BlackMusicSunday" target="_blank">Black Music Sunday</a> is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music. With <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/tags/BlackMusicSunday?filter=stories" target="_blank" title="">over 160 stories </a>(and counting) covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack, I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new. rss@dailykos.com (Denise Oliver Velez) BlackMusicSunday GladysKnight gladysknight&thePips Music _2169408 Sun, 21 May 2023 13:00:13 +0000 Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Zelenskyy in Hiroshima https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/21/2170512/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-Zelensky-in-Hiroshima?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= We begin today <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/20/politics/zelensky-g7-summit-biden-leaders/index.html" target="_blank">Kevin Liptak</a> of CNN reporting on the surprise in-person appearance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Group of 7 (G7) meeting held in Hiroshima, Japan. <blockquote> In a striking morning photo-op, leaders in suit jackets lined up alongside the Ukrainian president, dressed in his usual military green, to show their sustained support for his country moving ahead. As they convened behind closed doors, it was almost certain Zelensky would continue his appeals for more powerful weapons and tougher sanctions on Russia. <div>“Now our power is growing,” <a href="https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1660129294239121408" target="_blank" title="">Zelensky wrote in a tweet</a> alongside a video of him greeting various leaders at the summit. [...]</div> <div></div> Against the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/world/gallery/hiroshima-nagasaki-atomic-bomb/index.html" target="_blank" title="">nuclear backdrop of Hiroshima</a>, which was obliterated by an American atomic bomb in 1945 during World War II, Zelensky’s warnings of potential Russian escalation will carry significant weight. In a message as he landed, the Ukrainian leader hinted that potential peace talks might be up for discussion. </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Chitown Kev) AbbreviatedPunditRoundUp APR _2170512 Sun, 21 May 2023 11:00:06 +0000 Ukraine Update: Zelenskyy is at the G7, Putin is nowhere https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2170259/-Ukraine-Update-Zelenskyy-is-at-the-G7-Putin-is-nowhere?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= <div> <a name="update-1684608880000"></a> </div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684608880000"> <a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684608880000"> UPDATE: Saturday, May 20, 2023 · 6:54:40 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content">Translated:  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;A somber celebration by Prigozhin of Bakhmut finally &amp;quot;falling&amp;quot;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;He and the Russians know at what cost this and all recent advances came. Whether the ruins of the city stay with them for much longer is another question. &lt;a href="https://t.co/dJFe2r7u7z"&gt;pic.twitter.com/dJFe2r7u7z&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Dmitri (@wartranslated) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1659977239893508096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 20, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A somber celebration by Prigozhin of Bakhmut finally "falling". He and the Russians know at what cost this and all recent advances came. Whether the ruins of the city stay with them for much longer is another question. <a href="https://t.co/dJFe2r7u7z">pic.twitter.com/dJFe2r7u7z</a>— Dmitri (@wartranslated) <a href="https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1659977239893508096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> Mark and I both predicted Prigozhin would hightail it out of Bakhmut the second he could declare victory, and that’s what he says he’s doing right here. Conveniently, he takes credit for the “victory,” and Russia’s armed forces can take the blame when Ukraine inevitably liberates it.  </div> </div> <div><a name="update-1684604870000"></a></div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684604870000"><a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684603970000">UPDATE: Saturday, May 20, 2023 · 5:32:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner</a></div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684603970000"> <div class="live-update-content"> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Outside of Pisky, Donetsk Oblast, a disastrous Russian mechanized advance suffers significant attrition when an MT-LB hits a mine, followed soon after by a Ukrainian Javelin strike on another BMP-2. &lt;a href="https://t.co/bNM5U3HgBW"&gt;pic.twitter.com/bNM5U3HgBW&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1659974753212399616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 20, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Outside of Pisky, Donetsk Oblast, a disastrous Russian mechanized advance suffers significant attrition when an MT-LB hits a mine, followed soon after by a Ukrainian Javelin strike on another BMP-2. <a href="https://t.co/bNM5U3HgBW">pic.twitter.com/bNM5U3HgBW</a>— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) <a href="https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1659974753212399616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> </div> </div> <div><a name="update-1684602432000"></a></div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684602432000"><a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684602432000">UPDATE: Saturday, May 20, 2023 · 5:07:12 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content"> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;The news today is not that Prigozhin claims to control 100% of Bakhmut, up from 98% a week ago. The news is that a depleted Wagner will decamp in a few days, leaving the regular Russian army deal with a Ukrainian counteroffensive on the flanks and possibly inside the city.&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1659925947007549441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 20, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The news today is not that Prigozhin claims to control 100% of Bakhmut, up from 98% a week ago. The news is that a depleted Wagner will decamp in a few days, leaving the regular Russian army deal with a Ukrainian counteroffensive on the flanks and possibly inside the city.— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) <a href="https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1659925947007549441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> Indeed, Prigozhin declared victory and announced the withdrawal of his troops for redeployment to other worldwide hotspots like Sudan in Africa.  No one in Sudan or anywhere else deserves their brand of misery, but at least for Ukraine, Russia may be losing the only combat group capable of aggressively capturing territory (even if it was just 25 kms in the past year). </div> </div> <div><a name="update-1684599557000"></a></div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1684599557000"><a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1684599557000">UPDATE: Saturday, May 20, 2023 · 4:19:17 PM +00:00 · kos </a> <div class="live-update-content"> Joe Biden <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-war-f16-biden-a281e3cd1474b2e6f453946075824565" target="_blank">opens up door</a> to providing F-16s to Ukraine, though details are scant.  <blockquote> So far, however, the U.S. has provided no details and said decisions on when, how many, and who will supply the F-16s will be made in the months ahead while the training is underway. Details on the training are equally elusive. </blockquote> Meanwhile, the last Ukrainian troops may have finally left Bakhmut as Wagner Group CEO and founder Yevgeny Prigozhin declares victory. Relegated to a last few city blocks, the might of Russian artillery has been concentrated on that sector, lending its defense likely far more costly than its worth.  <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content="&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Take with a grain of salt. Prigozhin says Wagner’s forces have established full control over Bakhmut after a bloody siege that all but destroyed the city. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;His declaration of triumph is a long rant about how Shoigu and Gerasimov were no help and Wagner mostly did it on their own &lt;a href="https://t.co/CVxrQY6p9R"&gt;pic.twitter.com/CVxrQY6p9R&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; max seddon (@maxseddon) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1659906652139601921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;May 20, 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; "><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Take with a grain of salt. Prigozhin says Wagner’s forces have established full control over Bakhmut after a bloody siege that all but destroyed the city. His declaration of triumph is a long rant about how Shoigu and Gerasimov were no help and Wagner mostly did it on their own <a href="https://t.co/CVxrQY6p9R">pic.twitter.com/CVxrQY6p9R</a>— max seddon (@maxseddon) <a href="https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1659906652139601921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2023</a></blockquote> </div> </div> </div> On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dropped in on the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arab-league-saudi-syria-diplomacy-645964f3fa168bf339e3d7a46349d127" target="_blank">Arab Submit</a> in Saudi Arabia, then he travelled to Japan to visit with world leaders at the G7. Totally non-coincidentally, Zelenskyy’s latest visit comes just as the United States signed onto a plan to train Ukrainian pilots in flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon; a plan that would not exist if it wasn’t a precursor to providing Ukraine with some of the fighter jets. When Zelenskyy <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/21/2143090/-Ukraine-update-Zelenskyy-comes-to-Washington-to-fight-another-essential-battle-for-Ukraine" target="_blank">came to Washington D.C</a>. just before Christmas, it was the first time he had left the borders of Ukraine since Russian tanks rolled into that nation on Feb. 24, 2022. Since then, Zelenskyy has made several other trips abroad, that includes a whole string of visits earlier this month that saw him sitting down with the leaders of Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. He also stopped off to visit with the Pope in Vatican City. With the Ukrainian <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/23/2165137/-Ukraine-Update-So-many-counterattack-options-but-here-s-one-that-could-break-Russia" target="_blank">counteroffensive pending</a>, and Russia experiencing both <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/19/2170144/-Ukraine-Update-Russia-s-Bakhmut-collapse-bodes-ill-for-its-future-defenses" target="_blank">losses on the battlefield</a> and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/18/2170032/-Ukraine-Update-Russia-appears-as-fragile-as-a-Faberge-Egg" target="_blank">chaos in its military leadership</a>, there is only one thing that can stand in the way of moving this war in a positive direction: a decline of Western support. Zelenskyy knows that he needs to keep the pipeline for equipment, ammunition, and fiscal support open. Right now, that’s his most important task. He’s not needed on the front lines. His generals can plan the tactical moves. The job at hand for the Ukrainian president is reminding other world leaders that they have an enormous stake in the outcome of events, and their actions are critical to securing a Ukrainian victory. But as Zelenskyy travels across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to cement his nation’s relationship with the rest of the world, one part of that world is conspicuously absent. Russia, and authoritarian leader Vladimir Putin, are nowhere to be found. rss@dailykos.com (Mark Sumner) G7 Invasion Japan Russia Ukraine VolodymyrZelenskyy War _2170259 Sat, 20 May 2023 14:00:36 +0000 Big Liar Kari Lake got humiliated in court, but elections are still endangered https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/18/2170036/-Big-Liar-Kari-Lake-got-humiliated-in-court-but-elections-are-still-endangered?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= It’s hard not to picture Arizona gubernatorial dopeful Kari Lake sitting at a mall Chili’s bar four years from now with the last soldier who doesn’t know World War II is over and the most popular REO Speedwagon tribute band on MySpace as she whines and reminisces in equal measure about the good old days.  Lake remains in thrall to her delusions, including that she won her election in November and that Donald Trump is simply too stable and genius-y to have possibly lost in 2020. She is currently in court challenging her loss. And—well, gee, you never could have predicted this—<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/17/2153573/-Kari-Lake-loses-again-in-Arizona" target="_blank" title="">it’s not going well</a>. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/16/2169661/-Kari-Lake-headed-to-trial-on-last-remaining-claim-in-suit-over-loss-in-Arizona-governor-s-race" target="_blank">At all.</a> RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/16/2169661/-Kari-Lake-headed-to-trial-on-last-remaining-claim-in-suit-over-loss-in-Arizona-governor-s-race" title="">Kari Lake headed to trial on last remaining claim in suit over loss in Arizona governor’s race</a> rss@dailykos.com (Aldous J Pennyfarthing) Arizona DonaldTrump Election2020 KariLake Midterms Recommended TheBigLie _2170036 Thu, 18 May 2023 18:45:13 +0000 Jamaal Bowman: Marjorie Taylor Greene 'put a target on my back' https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/18/2170040/-Jamaal-Bowman-Marjorie-Taylor-Green-put-a-target-on-my-back?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Wednesday was a vintage Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene day. After <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/17/2169842/-Watch-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-get-humiliated-by-an-actual-expert">embarrassing herself and the Republican Party during a House committee hearing</a>, Greene got into a verbal argument with Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman outside of the Capitol—in front of a lot of cameras. It amounted to being mostly political theater, and Bowman made sure to keep a consistent distance as he ribbed Greene and her party’s support of indicted New York Rep. George Santos. The one-minute interaction ended with Greene departing as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez walked past Bowman, patted him on the shoulder and said, “She’s ain’t worth it, bro. She ain’t worth it.” During a Thursday press conference, Greene brought up her interactions with Bowman—one in March in New York City, and the one on Wednesday—and leaned into one of the oldest, most dangerous racist tropes in American history: She said she felt “threatened” by Bowman because his “physical mannerisms are aggressive.” Greene proceeded to unleash 90 seconds of racist drivel. She began by saying that Bowman “has a history of aggression” against her and others. She then claimed Bowman had screamed that she was a “white supremacist” (though video of both interactions show he does not), and also claimed that being called a white supremacist is the same thing as hurling a racial epithet at a Black person. Greene then said Bowman “shoved” Rep. Thomas Massie a few weeks earlier (he didn’t—also on video), and warned that people should be “concerned” and “watch out” for Bowman. RELATED STORY: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/17/2169842/-Watch-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-get-humiliated-by-an-actual-expert">An expert on domestic terrorism leaves MTG in the dirt</a> rss@dailykos.com (Walter Einenkel) BLM Censorship History jaamalbowman MarjorieTaylorGreene mtg politicaltheater Politics PressConference Race Racism RepublicanHypocrisy Video WhiteSupremacy _2170040 Thu, 18 May 2023 21:00:21 +0000 Biden proposal would let conservationists lease public land much as drillers and ranchers do https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2169426/-Biden-proposal-would-let-conservationists-lease-public-land-much-as-drillers-and-ranchers-do?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The Biden administration wants to put conserving vast government-owned lands on equal footing with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-billings-climate-and-environment-government-politics-e2d9bb381672f26ea985c65407c728ae">oil drilling</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/52a89c211a7c4ecbb1eec5d528b5347a">livestock grazing</a> and other interests, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-environment-and-nature-business-biden-cabinet-montana-9dd0423b5fce780aa77520d08b117002">a top administration official</a> who defended the idea against criticism that it would interfere with industry. The proposal would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. Companies could also buy conservation leases, such as oil drillers who want to offset damage to public land by restoring acreage elsewhere. Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the proposed changes would address rising pressure from climate change and development. While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation in limited cases, it has never had a dedicated program for it, she said. “It makes conservation an equal among the multiple uses that we manage for,” Stone-Manning said. “There are rules around how we do solar development. There are rules around how we do oil and gas. There have not been rules around how we deliver on the portions of (federal law) that say, ‘Manage for fish and wildlife habitat, manage for clean water.’” The pending rule also would promote establishing more areas of "critical environmental concern” due to their historic or cultural significance, or their importance for wildlife conservation. More than 1,000 such sites covering about 33,000 square miles (85,000 square kilometers) have been designated previously. By comparison, about 242,00 square miles of bureau land are open to grazing livestock. But more than a century after the U.S, started selling oil and gas leases, the conservation idea is stirring debate over the best use of vast government-owned property, primarily in the West. Opponents including Republican lawmakers are blasting it as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-billings-a3a37acf2fce55449b704b01badc1f67">a backdoor way</a> to exclude mining, energy development and agriculture from land controlled by the BLM. The bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies for the 380,000 square miles (990,000 square kilometers) it oversees, an area more than twice the size of California. It also regulates publicly owned underground minerals, including oil, coal and lithium for renewable energy across more than 1 million square miles. Those holdings put the 10,000-person agency at the center of arguments over how much development should be allowed. On Monday night, senior agency officials were scheduled to host the first virtual public meeting about the conservation proposal. Another virtual event is slated for June 5 and public meetings are planned for May 25 in Denver; May 30 in Reno, Nevada; and June 1 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who tried to block <a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-joe-biden-lifestyle-business-environment-and-nature-46552c29a0168be0fb6d9baa2ae11c57" title="">Stone-Manning’s 2021 Senate confirmation</a>, says the proposed rule is illegal. Earlier this month he berated Interior Secretary Deb Haaland over it during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, saying she was “giving radicals a new tool to shut out the public.” “The secretary wants to make non-use a use,” said Barrasso, the ranking Republican on the committee. “She is ... turning federal law on its head.” Stone-Manning said critics are misreading the rule, and that conservation leases would not usurp existing ones. If grazing is now permitted on a parcel, it could continue. And people could still hunt on the leased property or use it for recreation, she said. Former President Donald Trump tried to ramp up fossil fuel development on bureau lands, but President Joe Biden suspended new oil and gas leasing when he entered office. Biden later revived the deals to win West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's support for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-technology-science-oil-and-gas-industry-climate-environment-28df40ad9ebb33f4447815b6593673b3">last year's climate law</a>. Biden remains under intense pressure from Manchin and many Republicans to allow more drilling. Such companies currently hold leases across some 37,500 square miles of bureau land. Environmentalists have largely embraced the idea of conservation leases, characterizing the proposal as long overdue. Joel Webster with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a coalition of conservation groups and hunting and fishing organizations, said the administration's plan would set up a process to ensure landscapes are considered for conservation without forcing restrictions. He cautioned, however, that administration officials must ensure a final rule doesn't have unintended consequences. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) BLM BureauOfLandManagement JoeBiden resourcescommittee _2169426 Sat, 20 May 2023 22:30:06 +0000 AI presents political peril for 2024 with threat to mislead voters https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2169431/-AI-presents-political-peril-for-2024-with-threat-to-mislead-voters?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election. The synthetic images that emerged were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/media-us-news-ap-top-news-mark-zuckerberg-ca-state-wire-8f68040962074a3ab2f9634d8fcd0a3b">often crude</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/media-nancy-pelosi-ap-top-news-politics-technology-e810e38894bf4686ad9d0839b6cef93d">unconvincing</a> and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-artificial-intelligence-21fa207a1254401197fd1e0d7ecd14cb">deepfakes</a> always seemed a year or two away. No more. Sophisticated generative AI tools can now create <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-fires-artificial-intelligence-misinformation-26cabd20dcacbd68c8f38610fec39f5b">cloned human voices</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-images-rights-1c6d9e0e260e2d135a3e3bf98d5493df">hyper-realistic images</a>, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to powerful social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread far and fast and target highly specific audiences, potentially taking campaign dirty tricks to a new low. The implications for the 2024 campaigns and elections are as large as they are troubling: Generative AI can not only rapidly produce targeted campaign emails, texts or videos, it also could be used to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-artificial-intelligence-afb4618ff593db9e3e51ecbd91dc3eef">mislead voters</a>, impersonate candidates and undermine elections on a scale and at a speed not yet seen. “We’re not prepared for this,” warned A.J. Nash, vice president of intelligence at the cybersecurity firm ZeroFox. ”To me, the big leap forward is the audio and video capabilities that have emerged. When you can do that on a large scale, and distribute it on social platforms, well, it’s going to have a major impact.” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-danger-superintelligent-chatgpt-hinton-google-6e4992e7a87d5bcae787ad45545757db">AI experts</a> can quickly rattle off a number of alarming scenarios in which generative AI is used to create synthetic media for the purposes of confusing voters, slandering a candidate or even inciting violence. Here are a few: Automated robocall messages, in a candidate's voice, instructing voters to cast ballots on the wrong date; audio recordings of a candidate supposedly confessing to a crime or expressing racist views; video footage showing someone giving a speech or <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-bill-gates-interview-661059591134">interview</a> they never gave. Fake images designed to look like local news reports, falsely claiming a candidate dropped out of the race. “What if Elon Musk personally calls you and tells you to vote for a certain candidate?” said Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, who stepped down last year to start the nonprofit AI2. “A lot of people would listen. But it’s not him.” Former President Donald Trump, who is running in 2024, has shared AI-generated content with his followers on social media. A manipulated video of CNN host Anderson Cooper that Trump shared on his Truth Social platform on Friday, which distorted Cooper's reaction to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-cnn-town-hall-things-to-know-7be863292956dd2663537880dfbd8c3f">CNN town hall</a> this past week <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-republican-president-cnn-2024-69921c48683f26c02eb799513e8e5754">with Trump</a>, was created using an AI voice-cloning tool. A dystopian campaign ad released last month by the Republican National Committee offers another glimpse of this digitally manipulated future. The online ad, which came after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-election-2024-president-democrats-trump-9c72115656855da89a41cac3f79aa65b">President Joe Biden announced his reelection campaign</a>, and starts with a strange, slightly warped image of Biden and the text “What if the weakest president we’ve ever had was re-elected?” A series of AI-generated images follows: Taiwan under attack; boarded up storefronts in the United States as the economy crumbles; soldiers and armored military vehicles patrolling local streets as tattooed criminals and waves of immigrants create panic. “An AI-generated look into the country’s possible future if Joe Biden is re-elected in 2024,” reads the ad’s description from the RNC. The RNC acknowledged its use of AI, but others, including nefarious political campaigns and foreign adversaries, will not, said Petko Stoyanov, global chief technology officer at Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas. Stoyanov predicted that groups looking to meddle with U.S. democracy will employ AI and synthetic media as a way to erode trust. “What happens if an international entity — a cybercriminal or a nation state — <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-elections-artificial-intelligence-social-platforms-us-news-7c9fd798212cac63925d205142e811ea">impersonates someone</a>. What is the impact? Do we have any recourse?” Stoyanov said. “We're going to see a lot more misinformation from international sources.” AI-generated political disinformation already has gone viral online ahead of the 2024 election, from a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-fires-artificial-intelligence-misinformation-26cabd20dcacbd68c8f38610fec39f5b">doctored video of Biden</a> appearing to give a speech attacking transgender people to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-satanic-kids-libraries-415653916064">AI-generated images of children</a> supposedly learning satanism in libraries. AI images <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-mug-shot-fact-check-2a57de9b109fa95f833c62e5509b9e45">appearing to show Trump’s mug shot</a> also fooled some social media users even though the former president didn’t take one when he was booked and arraigned in a Manhattan criminal court for falsifying business records. Other AI-generated images showed <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-NYPD-stormy-daniels-539393517762">Trump resisting arrest</a>, though their creator was quick to acknowledge their origin. Legislation that would require candidates to label campaign advertisements created with AI has been introduced in the House by Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who has also sponsored legislation that would require anyone creating synthetic images to add a watermark indicating the fact. Some states have offered <a href="https://apnews.com/article/deepfake-minnesota-pornography-elections-technology-5ef76fc3994b2e437c7595c09a38e848">their own proposals</a> for addressing concerns about deepfakes. Clarke said her greatest fear is that generative AI could be used before the 2024 election to create a video or audio that incites violence and turns Americans against each other. “It’s important that we keep up with the technology,” Clarke told The Associated Press. “We’ve got to set up some guardrails. People can be deceived, and it only takes a split second. People are busy with their lives and they don’t have the time to check every piece of information. AI being weaponized, in a political season, it could be extremely disruptive.” Earlier this month, a trade association for political consultants in Washington <a href="https://theaapc.org/american-association-of-political-consultants-aapc-condemns-use-of-deceptive-generative-ai-content-in-political-campaigns-2/">condemned the use of deepfakes</a> in political advertising, calling them “a deception” with “no place in legitimate, ethical campaigns.” Other forms of artificial intelligence have for years been a feature of political campaigning, using data and algorithms to automate tasks such as targeting voters on social media or tracking down donors. Campaign strategists and tech entrepreneurs hope the most recent innovations will offer some positives in 2024, too. Mike Nellis, CEO of the progressive digital agency Authentic, said he uses <a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-is-chat-gpt-ac4967a4fb41fda31c4d27f015e32660">ChatGPT</a> “every single day” and encourages his staff to use it, too, as long as any content drafted with the tool is reviewed by human eyes afterward. Nellis’ newest project, in partnership with Higher Ground Labs, is an AI tool called Quiller. It will write, send and evaluate the effectiveness of fundraising emails –- all typically tedious tasks on campaigns. “The idea is every Democratic strategist, every Democratic candidate will have a copilot in their pocket,” he said. ___ rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) 2024 AI Voting _2169431 Sat, 20 May 2023 21:00:30 +0000 LGBTQ+ group suspends Bud Light maker's rating over handling of backlash to transgender influencer https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2170295/-LGBTQ-group-suspends-Bud-Light-maker-s-rating-over-handling-of-backlash-to-transgender-influencer?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= The country's largest advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights has suspended its benchmark equality and inclusion rating for Anheuser-Busch, citing the beer company's handling of the hate-filled and transphobic backlash to its <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bud-light-transgender-dylan-mulvaney-nike-2fe1425ba09a3f0e271fda0ae4b67434">partnership with transgender influencer</a> Dylan Mulvaney last month. The Human Rights Campaign informed the Bud Light maker that it suspended the company's 2022 Corporate Equality Index score — a tool that measures corporate policies, practices and benefits related to the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees — on May 9, according to a letter shared with the The Associated Press on Friday. The suspension of Anheuser-Busch’s CEI score means that the company “no longer has the right to use the ‘Best Places to Work’ distinction,” HRC’s letter says. Prior to the suspension, Anheuser-Busch had a CEI score of 100, the group's top rating. “What we're seeing play out here is an example of companies making a decision to have and construct inclusive marketing, which is great — but a business should be standing by those decisions,” Eric Bloem, HRC’s senior director of programs and corporate advocacy, told The Associated Press. “The Anheuser-Busch (case) is a textbook example of what not to do.” On April 1, as part of a March promotional contest for the beer brand, Mulvaney posted a Instagram video of herself cracking open a Bud Light. A cascade of criticism and hate surrounding the video soon erupted, notably among conservative figures — with Kid Rock posting a video of himself shooting cases of Bud Light and others calling for a boycott of the brand. In the following weeks, the beer brand's sales also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bud-light-beer-dylan-mulvaney-transgender-d489fb60d04ebd02486f80169cfc4474">fell slightly</a> and two marketing executives at Anheuser-Busch <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bud-light-transgender-influencer-partnership-marketing-executive-234ac7cf05d2124ed6ff7162e4771a43">took a leave of absence</a>. In an April 14 statement, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said that the company “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer." Anheuser-Busch's actions and Whitworth's statement did not not signal clear support for Mulvaney, however, or directly address the transphobic rhetoric perpetuated during the backlash — sparking concerns among the LGBTQ+ community and activists. Meaningful solidarity is especially important in a time where dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ bills are signed into law across the country, Bloem added. In an April 26 letter, also seen by the AP, HRC called on Anheuser-Busch to issue a public statement expressing support for Mulvaney as well as transgender customers, shareholders and employees. The group also asked the company to hold a “meaningful conversation” with LGBTQ+ employees about their concerns and recommended actions for leadership and conduct a workplace transgender inclusion training for executives. HRC said it received no response from Anheuser-Busch, the advocacy group said, prompting the May 9 letter informing the company of its CEI score suspension. To date, Bloem said Friday, HRC has still not heard from the company — but the organization's goal is to work with the company and “discuss strategies to show up and reaffirm that support for the LGBTQ+ community.” Anheuser-Busch said Friday that the company remains “committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations to drive economic prosperity across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.” The Bud Light maker, which is part of the Belgium-based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, did not address HCR's letters. Mulvaney took a few weeks before commenting publicly on the backlash — but posted a video to her Instagram page at the end of April thanking supporters, but did not mentioning Bud Light by name in the post. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/05/18/bud-light-loses-lgbtq-score-after-dylan-mulvaney-transgender-campaign/70229893007/">USA TODAY</a> first reported the Anheuser-Busch’s CEI score suspension on Thursday. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) Anheuser-Busch BudLight DylanMulvaney HumanRightsCampaign LGBTQ _2170295 Sat, 20 May 2023 19:30:20 +0000 Texas militia member sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for attacking police during Capitol riot https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/5/20/2170290/-Texas-militia-member-sentenced-to-nearly-5-years-in-prison-for-attacking-police-during-Capitol-riot?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source= A Texas militia member was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in prison for attacking police officers at the U.S. Capitol, seriously injuring one of them during a mob's attack on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss sentenced Donald Hazard to four years and nine months in prison followed by three months of supervised release for his role in <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">the riot at the Capitol</a>, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia. The sentence matched what federal prosecutors had recommended for Hazard, who pleaded guilty to an assault charge in February. Hazard, 44, of Hurst, Texas, was a member of a militia called the Patriot Boys of North Texas. Lucas Denney, the group's self-proclaimed president, appointed Hazard as its sergeant-at-arms. Denney also encouraged Hazard to stock up on weapons and protective gear and recruit others to join them in Washington, D.C., prosecutors said. Hazard was “eager for violence” on Jan. 6, wearing a tactical vest and a helmet adorned with the image of the Confederate battle flag, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.241964/gov.uscourts.dcd.241964.40.1.pdf">Justice Department prosecutor Benet Kearney wrote in a court filing.</a> After marching to the Capitol, Hazard clashed with officers who were trying to hold off the mob near scaffolding on the northwest side of the building. Hazard grabbed a Capitol police officer and pulled him down a set of concrete steps, knocking him unconscious. That officer was treated for a concussion and foot injuries that required multiple surgeries, according to prosecutors. Hazard also fell on another Capitol police officer whose head hit the concrete. Hazard and Denney, both wielding what appeared to be canisters of pepper spray, confronted other officers on the west side of the Capitol. Hazard briefly entered the Capitol before police pushed him and other rioters out of the building. “When he reached the exterior steps, Hazard raised his arms in a gesture of victory,” Kearney wrote. In the days after Jan. 6, Hazard bragged on Facebook about storming the Capitol and fighting with police. “The only regret Hazard expressed was that he no longer had the photographs and videos he took that day,” Kearney wrote. Defense attorney Ubong Akpan said Hazard had no plan to attack officers. “His actions were more of a reaction to what he saw that day, as opposed to a plan to attack law enforcement, a group he thought he was similarly situated with,” <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.241964/gov.uscourts.dcd.241964.46.0.pdf">Akpan wrote in a court filing.</a> Video shows that Hazard didn't forcibly assault the officers in the scaffolding, his lawyer argued. “His conduct was more consistent with impeding officers and his impeding led to bodily injuries of the officers,” Akpan wrote. Hazard was charged with Denney, who pleaded guilty to an assault charge and was sentenced last September to four years and four months in prison. More than 100 police officers were injured at the Capitol on Jan. 6, as rioters disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory over Republican incumbent Donald Trump. <a href="https://interactives.ap.org/jan-6-prosecutions/">Over 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot.</a> Approximately 500 of them have been sentenced, with more than half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to over 14 years. rss@dailykos.com (Associated Press stories chosen by Daily Kos staff) DonaldHazard Insurrection Jan6 Militia _2170290 Sat, 20 May 2023 18:00:08 +0000