“Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information).”

“ It isn’t happening in a vacuum. It is happening as he faced the possibility of an indictment from the Manhattan DA. But he is not putting out statements about the ‘audits’ in states just for the sake of it. He’s been laser focused on them, according to several people who’ve spoken with him (as well as WaPo reporting a few weeks ago)” – Maggie Haberman, NYT.

#HurricaneSeason officially begins today. Here is the list of the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Names. We can cross "Ana" off the list, Interesting to note that "Elsa" is one of the names this year. If you are a Disney Frozen fan, then you know what I'm referring to:) @CBSMiami #CBS4 pic.twitter.com/uJ9lUhrt2d

— Lissette Gonzalez (@LissetteCBS4) June 1, 2021

“Belarus’ border security agency on Monday announced a severe tightening of already strict rules limiting citizens’ ability to exit the country – even if they have long-term residency permits abroad. The changes, which the agency said were temporary and designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, essentially block all land border crossings. Ever more citizens have fled the former Soviet bloc country since Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of a disputed presidential election last August and mass protests over election rigging were met with a severe crackdown.”

“Faced with the prospect of a mass exodus of medical and IT experts, the government in Minsk began making it more difficult for citizens to leave the country last December, by limiting departures to those Belarus citizens who could present long-term residency permits from abroad. The new rules now forbid the holders of such documents from leaving as well” – Deutsche Welle.

“New data on the 2020 election show that then-President Donald Trump drew substantial support in some battleground states from Americans who had skipped prior elections, creating a new pool of voters whose decisions on whether to participate again will be central to next year’s midterms. These voters had cast ballots intermittently or sat out all prior elections, despite being old enough to vote, but were drawn off the sidelines by the Republican president’s race against his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. New analyses by TargetSmart, a Democratic voter-data firm, and the Republican National Committee found that more of these ‘low-propensity voters’ chose to register as Republicans than Dems in several of the closest battlegrounds, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida. In Pennsylvania, for example, more than 600,000 voters who cast ballots in 2020 had been eligible to vote in prior general elections but never did, TargetSmart found.”

“More of these newly engaged voters registered as Republicans than Democrats by about 6 percentage points, giving the GOP an edge of about 35,400 voters in a fiercely competitive state – though one which Mr. Biden won. The results present both good news and a challenge for the Republican Party. The data help explain how Mr. Trump won 11 million more votes in 2020 than in his first election and show that his campaign drew new supporters to the GOP, an effort that focused most intensely on reaching working-class and rural voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other battlegrounds. But the strategy came with a gamble. In engaging more working-class and rural Americans, Mr. Trump forfeited a measure of support from professional-class and suburban voters in the process, losing people who show up regularly for elections in favor of those with inconsistent voting records. That has left Republicans with an increased reliance on voters who likely need an extra push to turn out again, analysts in both parties say” – Wall Street Journal.

The Guardian: “The Fox News host Sean Hannity was criticised for appearing at a Trump rally in 2018 but according to a new book he was involved again with Trump’s campaign in 2020, helping write an ad that aired on his primetime show. Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story Of How Trump Lost, by Mike Bender, senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, will be published in August. News of its contents, including ‘some amazingly hilarious revelations” about Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Tucker Carlson, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump “and the rest of the Trump posse’, was reported by Punchbowl News. According to the news site, the ad known to Trump insiders as ‘the Hannity ad’ and ‘the one Hannity wrote’ ran only during Hannity’s show.”

“An anonymous Trump aide is reported as saying ‘Hannity said this is our best spot yet’ but Bender reports: ‘Inside the campaign, the spot was mocked mercilessly – mostly because of the dramatic, over-the-top language and a message that seemed to value quantity over quality.’ ‘Donald Trump himself, in a post-election interview with Bender, did not dispute that Hannity wrote the ad, which called [Joe] Biden a ‘47-year swamp creature’ who had ‘accomplished nothing’ and supported a ‘radical, socialist Green New Deal’.’ Such language attacking Biden’s long career in the Senate and as vice-president to Barack Obama was used by Trump advisers. In October, for example, senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters: ‘The contrast between a 47-year swamp creature in Joe Biden and a businessman in President Trump has been a major theme of this campaign and I would expect it to be so through election day.’ Bender reports that the Trump campaign thought the Hannity ad ‘so useless that they limited it to exactly one show: Hannity… If Trump and Hannity watched the spot on television – and were satisfied enough to stop asking about the commercial – that seemed to be the best result of the ad. The cost of that investment: $1.5m.'”

“Let me be VERY CLEAR – There is NO reason whatsoever for any coup in America, and I do not and have not at any time called for any action of that sort. Any reporting of any other belief by me is a boldface fabrication based on twisted reporting at a lively panel at a conference of Patriotic Americans who love this country, just as I do. I am no stranger to media manipulating my words and therefore let me repeat my response to a question asked at the conference: There is no reason it (a coup) should happen here (in America)” – QAnon General Mike Flynn.

https://youtu.be/J65HM5AArgU

Leave it to Fox News host (and guy who really wants to be the next spokesmodel for Brawny paper towels) Tucker Carlson to insult the military on Memorial Day.

On a special Monday edition of the pre-recorded web show “Tucker Carlson Today,” the intrepid trust fund heir and ne’er-do-well started running down how the United States has changed in the last year, listing a series of fictions he created.  “Our public health experts have been exposed as frauds, incompetent and dishonest.  Our schools now openly teach racism to our children.  Our military, at times, does not seem interested in protecting the country.”

(Of course, Carlson could be referring to Mike Flynn, who called for a military coup in the United States this past weekend, but I doubt it.)

“Most of the news channels don’t want to cover these stories, the real stories.  They occupy themselves with frivolities,” says the guy who had a rat wrangler and poultry enthusiast on his show last week.

I’m ashamed and somewhat embarrassed to say that I had not heard of the Tulsa race massacre until I was in my mid 40s.  I always considered myself someone who understood American history, but it wasn’t aware of the Tulsa massacre until I started to talking frankly with a few friends/work associates who were Black.

Baltimore, where I worked, was in the middle of a number of historical anniversaries running over the course of years:  the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner’s writing and the 150th anniversary of the Baltimore riot that produced the first deaths of the Civil War.  One of my friends was completely antipathetic about these events, explaining to me the city rarely celebrated events in Black history.

Of course, I had heard of Black History Month–but I never really understood that there was a record of Blacks in the United States that had rarely, if ever, been taught in schools.  I went to a virtually all-white grade school and an virtually all-white high school–literally, the only minorities we had were Asian-Americans.  There was a time, in fourth grade, where two black sisters enrolled in my parochial grade school; they lasted all of two weeks before transferring out. 

I think back to a time when I was fifteen, merely standing on a corner, and a village cop all of maybe eight years older than I told me I had five minutes to get the fuck out of there before he’d ring us up on some charge. Don’t even know what that charge was supposed to be in retrospect, all I know when I remember that was that the asshole was definitely bluffing, or maybe he wasn’t and I’d’ve had to answer for it in a village court, a hundred something dollar fine, which was a lot of money back in 1999. It could’ve been a big deal, my mere presence upsetting the law and order of that community and the professional dignity of its hot shot bro cop tasked with upholding its sanctity from the chaos potentially wrought by a high school freshman who weighed 130 lbs soaking wet.

It’s not hard to think that if I were a Conservative at my age now, I’d be arrogant and Caucasian enough to believe that small moment of indignity and the many others I dealt with as a teenager in my shitty part-time jobs and incompetently managed high school would’ve equipped me to understand what it’s like to be Black in the United States in the 21st Century. I’d be pilloried as an asshole for white-splaining and rightfully so, because none of us whites truly understand.

A convicted killer pardoned by former Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin in a flurry of clemency grants during his last weeks in office has been arrested by federal agents and could face new charges in the case.

Patrick Baker, 43, was convicted in 2017 of a conspiracy to rob a local drug dealer of pain pills.  Baker was convicted of reckless manslaughter, first-degree robbery, tampering with evidence and impersonating a police officer in connection with the fatal shooting of Donald Mills while he and four others stole between $50,000 and $75,000 of pills from Mills.

Baker would only serve two years of his sentence as he was granted a pardon by Bevin as one of more than 500 acts of clemency Bevin issued in his final weeks as governor.  The clemency was questioned when it became public that Baker’s brother and sister-in-law raised more than $20,000 for Bevin’s campaign in 2018.  His family also raised money for other Republican causes. 

A white supremacist in Vermont was arrested on Friday for attempting to tamper with a witness in an outstanding case he’s facing for buying illegal gun magazines in New Hampshire, WCAX NBC-3 news reports.

Thirty-eight year old Max Misch of Bennington was arrested Friday after he reportedly confronted a witness in his pending prosecution for buying two 30-round rifle magazines in New Hampshire and bringing them back to Vermont, where they are illegal.

Misch’s case was pending a decision by the Vermont Supreme Court regarding the legality of the state ban on high-capacity magazines, a case Misch lost.

The Department of Justice Marks the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland's first official trip began in Tulsa, Oklahoma to recognize the significance of the Tulsa Race Massacre that had occurred there 100 years earlier. pic.twitter.com/HkoEF7jUeJ

— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) May 31, 2021

Wall Street Journal: “West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is personally on the hook for nearly $700 million in loans his coal companies took out from now-defunct Greensill Capital, according to people familiar with the loans and documents described to The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Justice’s personal guarantee of the loans, which hasn’t been reported, puts financial pressure on the popular Republican governor. He is also dealing with unrelated lawsuits alleging parts of his sprawling network of coal companies breached payment contracts or failed to deliver coal.”

“Greensill packaged the loans and sold them to investment funds managed by Credit Suisse Group. Credit Suisse and Greensill ran $10 billion in supply-chain finance funds that extended financing to a range of borrowers. The Swiss bank froze the investment funds in March and is in talks with Mr. Justice’s Bluestone Resources Inc. and other borrowers to recoup money to make investors whole, according to the people familiar with the discussions. Credit Suisse is under pressure to recover money quickly and has named Bluestone as one of three large borrowers from the Greensill funds that it has identified in its recovery efforts. Bluestone hadn’t expected to begin repaying the Greensill loans until 2023 at the earliest, it said in a lawsuit brought in March in a New York federal court alleging Greensill committed fraud in its lending practices.”

“For all the yelps we hear from conservatives about liberty, the Texas GOP’s attempt to bar people from transporting more than 2 non-relatives to the polls would constitute a chilling (and unconstitutional) restriction on freedom of movement, assembly. Like the 1860s Black Codes. One of the reasons Reconstruction-era Republicans passed the 14th Amendment was that ex-Confederate states passed Black Codes limiting freedmen’s ability to assemble, speak, worship, carry firearms for hunting or protection, choose to work or not to work. As the Supreme Court (much later) recognized, the amendment was designed to federalize the Bill of Rights gaurantees, which before 14A applied only to the federal government. Making it illegal to drive someone to the polls, without explanation, is an outrageous throwback to 1866” – Politico Editor Josh Zeitz.

The best thing we can do as constitutionalists moving forward is to ensure this utter disregard for states’ election laws never happens again.

That’s why election integrity is the number one issue facing America today.

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) May 30, 2021

“If President Biden gets his way, it will soon be far easier to immigrate to the United States. There will be shorter, simpler forms and applicants will have to jump through fewer security hoops. Foreigners will have better opportunities to join their families and more chances to secure work visas. A 46-page draft blueprint obtained by The New York Times maps out the Biden administration’s plans to significantly expand the legal immigration system, including methodically reversing the efforts to dismantle it by former President Donald J. Trump, who reduced the flow of foreign workers, families and refugees, erecting procedural barriers tougher to cross than his ‘big, beautiful wall.’ Because of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, the average time it takes to approve employer-sponsored green cards has doubled. The backlog for applications is up 80 percent since 2014, to more than 900,000 cases. Approval for the U-visa program, which grants legal status for immigrants willing to help the police, has gone from five months to roughly five years.”

“In almost every case over the last four years, immigrating to the United States has become harder, more expensive and takes longer. And while Mr. Biden made clear during his presidential campaign that he intended to undo much of his predecessor’s immigration legacy, the blueprint offers new details about how far-reaching the effort will be – not only rolling back Mr. Trump’s policies, but addressing backlogs and delays that plagued prior presidents. The blueprint, dated May 3 and titled ‘D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System,’ lists scores of initiatives intended to reopen the country to more immigrants, making good on the president’s promise to ensure America embraces its ‘character as a nation of opportunity and of welcome.’ ‘There are significant changes that need to be made to really open up all avenues of legal immigration,’ said Felicia Escobar Carrillo, the chief of staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, of the efforts to reverse Mr. Trump’s agenda. ‘In the same way that they took a broad-stroke approach to closing off avenues, I think we want to take a broad approach toward opening up the legal avenues that have always been available but that they tried to put roadblocks up on'” – New York Times.

Axios: “QAnon conspiracy theories have burrowed so deeply into American churches that pastors are expressing alarm – and a new poll shows the bogus teachings have become as widespread as some denominations. Why it matters: The problem with misinformation and disinformation is that people – lots of people – believe it. And they don’t believe reality coming from the media and even their ministers. Russell Moore, one of America’s most respected evangelical Christian thinkers, told me he’s ‘talking literally every day to pastors, of virtually every denomination, who are exhausted by these theories blowing through their churches or communities.'”

“‘Several pastors told me that they once had to talk to parents dismayed about the un-Christian beliefs of their grown children,’ Moore added. But now, the tables have turned. That stunning window into the country’s congregations came in response to a major poll, out last week: 15% of Americans, the poll found, agree with the QAnon contention that ‘the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation.’ That’s more than 1 in 6. The online poll was taken by Ipsos in March for the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core. (Poll: 5,625 U.S. adults. Margin of error for full survey: ±1.5%) ‘For those who hope that the events of January 6 are in our past, I think this data gives little in the way of assurance,’ said Kristin Du Mez, a Calvin University historian of gender, faith and politics, and author of ‘Jesus and John Wayne’. The poll found that Hispanic Protestants (26%) and white evangelical Protestants (25%) were more likely to agree with the QAnon philosophies than other groups. (Black Protestants were 15%, white Catholics were 11% and white mainline Protestants were 10%.)”

“On this Memorial Day, we remember the fallen heroes who took their last breaths in defense of our Nation, our families, our citizens, and our sacred freedoms. The depth of their devotion, the steel of their resolve, and the purity of their patriotism has no equal in human history. On distant battlefields, in far-off oceans, and high in the skies above, they faced down our enemies and gave their lives so that America would prevail. They made the supreme sacrifice so that our people can live in safety and our Nation can thrive in peace. It is because of their gallantry that we can together, as one people, continue our pursuit of America’s glorious destiny. We owe all that we are, and everything we ever hope to be, to these unrivaled heroes. Their memory and their legacy is immortal. Our loyalty to them and to their families is eternal and everlasting. America’s warriors are the single greatest force for justice, peace, liberty, and security among all the nations ever to exist on earth. God bless our fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen, Airmen, and Marines. We honor them today, forever, and always” – Statement from the Orange Pharaoh.

Yeah there’s no way Trump himself wrote that. It’s spelled and capitalized properly and doesn’t include anything about “never forgetting” that the election was “stolen” from him, nor that it was “fake news” when The Atlantic reported that Donald had repeatedly badmouthed and disparaged dead service members back in September 2020, a story that was widely believed to have done serious damage to his reelection effort. And was totally believable, despite the whiny protestations from his minions, as it tracked with the shit Trump had said about John McCain’s service.

Axios: “China’s government announced Monday it is relaxing strict family planning restrictions and allowing couples to have three children each. The ruling Chinese Communist Party lifted the two-children-per-parents limit in order to counter an aging population and falling birth rate that has raised concerns about the country’s economic future. The government imposed a repressive one-child policy to slow population growth in 1979. It eased the limit on couples to two children in 2016, but Census figures released earlier this month showed the country had recorded its slowest population growth for over half a century.”