When elected Governor of California, I will CANCEL, cancel culture and wake up the woke.

— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) May 27, 2021

The Hill staff writer Morgan Gstalter misquoted source material to swing the angle of a story about a postal worker who was caught failing to delivery pieces of mail, with Gstalter falsely claiming that the postal worker did it for political purposes.

“During his first court appearance in October, assistant U.S. Attorney Sara F. Merin said there was evidence at the time indicating that Beauchene’s actions were politically motivated, local outlet NJ.com reported. Beauchene’s attorney reportedly agreed but declined to comment further,” Gstalter wrote in his story about a 26-year-old mail carrier who didn’t deliver approximately 2,000 pieces of mail, including 99 mail-in ballots. The story posted at 2:41 p.m. ET, according to The Hill’s timestamp.

Unfortunately, the original story from NJ.com Gstalter cites states exactly the opposite:  “In his first appearance in federal court after being charged in October, assistant U.S. Attorney Sara F. Merin said Beauchene gave a statement admitting he discarded the mail. However, the prosecutor said there was no evidence at the time indicating that Beauchene’s actions were politically motivated. “Beauchene’s attorney concurred that it was not politically motivated, but declined to comment further.”

Gstalter continues on, saying that the undelivered ballots supports Donald Trump’s claims that mail in ballots were corrupt and faulty, saying, “However, experts have insisted that Trump’s claims are baseless and there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.”

Two tech trade associations have filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Florida for a new law that would punish social media platform that bar political figures from their site for violating terms of service conditions, USA Today reports.

NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida federal court in Tallahassee alleging that the law violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, documents obtained by the news outlets says.

Signed by Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday, the law would require social media platforms to announce specific violations and require a right to appeal any ban or suspension of an account run by a political figure, or the company would face a $250,000 per day fine.  The law loosely defines who qualifies as a political figure, and is obviously an attempt to punish social media companies like Facebook and Twitter who have banned Donald Trump for repeatedly inciting violence and spreading dangerous lies.

Three Tacoma, Washington police officers will be charged in the death of Mannie Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who died in March 2020 after being restrained by police with handcuffs and leg shackles, KATU ABC-2 News reports.

Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins have been charged with second-degree murder, and Timothy Rankine has been charged with first-degree manslaughter.  The trio, along with two other Tacoma police officers involved in the arrest, have been on administrative leave since the night of Ellis’s death.

Police tazed Ellis and then restrained him with handcuffs and leg shackles before putting a spit hood over his head.  On a video taken by a bystander, Ellis is heard repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.”  Toxicology reports done during the autopsy show Ellis had methamphetamine in his system, and officers said during the investigation into his death that Ellis exhibited “superhuman” strength.

Quinnipiac University Polls: “With lawmakers divided over whether to form an independent 9/11 style commission to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, a majority of Americans (55 percent) say they view the events of January 6th as an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten, while 39 percent say too much is being made of the storming of the U.S. Capitol and it is time to move on, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of adults released today. There are stark political divides on this question.”

“Democrats say 84 – 12 percent and independents say 54 – 42 percent that the January 6th storming of the Capitol should never be forgotten, while Republicans say 74 – 18 percent that too much is being made of it and that it is time to move on. Asked whether each political party is acting in the best interests of democracy, Americans say… Republican Party: 59 percent no, 34 percent yes, Democratic Party: 49 percent no, 44 percent yes.”

A Kansas member of the Proud Boys, jailed since his February 11th arrest for his participation in the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, has petitioned the court for his release, claiming that he is at risk of losing disability payments for a work-related injury, the Kansas City Star reports.

Though 47-year-old William Chrestman of Olathe, Kansas was filmed at the Capitol on January 6th mingling with other Proud Boys members, wielding an axe handle and threatening Capitol Police, his attorney claimed that there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that he was actually at the attack, that he participated and/or that he helped organize it.  Instead, his lawyer claims, the other people he was arrested with played a much bigger part, and they have all been released on their own recognisance.

“In the materials already submitted by the government, and in materials provided to the defense in discovery, it is strikingly obvious there is no evidence that Mr. Chrestman plays any role in any concerted operation alleged to have been occurring that day,” said the motion, submitted by attorney Peter A. Cooper, who claimed Chrestman was not a danger to society.

BuzzFeed: “The true number of people killed by the disastrous winter storm and power outages that devastated Texas in February is likely four or five times what the state has acknowledged so far. A BuzzFeed News data analysis reveals the hidden scale of a catastrophe that trapped millions of people in freezing darkness, cut off access to running water, and overwhelmed emergency services for days. The state’s tally currently stands at 151 deaths. But by looking at how many more people died during and immediately after the storm than would have been expected – an established method that has been used to count the full toll of other disasters – we estimate that 700 people were killed by the storm during the week with the worst power outages.”

“This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials’ neglect in preventing the power grid’s collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state’s failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed. Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable – with chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney problems. But without the intense cold and stress they experienced during the crisis, many of these people could still be alive today.”

Everything is under control. There was an ATTEMPT to Seize my cellular telephone. That attempt has been DEALT WITH. Let’s just say they “Messed with the wrong MARINE.” I will fill you ALL in on the details. I just need to make some “arrangements” first.

— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) May 27, 2021

An Alabama man has had to endure a series of painful operation, culminating in the amputation of his left hand, after he developed muscular and nerve damage from a Birmingham police officer handcuffing him too tightly during a February 2020 arrest, the Washington Post reports.

According to his lawsuit, Giovanni Loyola, 26, was watching television at his mother’s home when sheriff’s deputies, responding to a call of a fight between two men holding “large weapons,” knocked on the door of his home in a Birmingham trailer park.  Although Loyola said he hadn’t heard any disturbance, the officers demanded that Loyola step out of the house so they could search it, but Loyola refused.  Deputies pulled him from the house and threw him against a police car, handcuffing him.  Loyola immediately told the deputies that the cuffs were too tight, but they ignored him and put him on the ground, with one deputy, identified as Deputy Godber, occasionally kneeling on his back.

The deputies made Loyola’s mother exit the house as they searched it for 45 minutes, although they did not present a search warrant, all with Loyola laying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back, as he started losing the feeling in his hand.

Ron Brownstein, The Atlantic: “Anxiety is growing among a broad range of civil-rights, democracy-reform, and liberal groups over whether Democrats are responding with enough urgency to the accelerating Republican efforts to both suppress voting and potentially overturn future Democratic election victories. With the congressional calendar dominated by President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar spending proposals, these activists are expressing concern that neither the administration nor Democratic congressional leaders are raising sufficient alarms about the threats to voting rights proliferating in red states, or developing a strategy to pass the national election standards that these groups consider the party’s best chance to counter those threats.”

“These worries haven’t yet reached a breaking point: The wide range of activists I spoke with almost uniformly consider Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi personally committed to combatting the red-state offensive. Most of them also expressed cautious, if wavering, optimism that Democrats can still find a way to pass into law at least some election-standards provisions, which are stalled in the Senate, primarily because of resistance from Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. And a senior White House official I spoke with insists Biden is focused on the threat, even if the administration doesn’t view it in terms as dire as most liberal groups. Even so, these activists have become more and more uncertain that Democratic leaders have a strategy to overcome Manchin’s hesitance, not to mention his (and other Democrats’) refusal to pare back the filibuster, which Republicans are certain to employ against any voting-rights legislation. What’s more, these activists fear that by focusing relatively little attention on red states’ actions, Democrats aren’t doing enough to create a climate of public opinion in which Manchin and others could feel pressure to act on the issue of voting rights if and when Senate Republicans filibuster against it. ‘From my conversations, I believe they understand’ the magnitude of the problem in the White House and the Senate, Rashad Robinson, the president of the civil-rights group Color for Change, told me. But ‘I have not yet seen it being addressed at the level it needs to be in order for us to deal with the problem.'”

“He may be facing allegations of sex trafficking of a minor, but Rep. Matt Gaetz still has his eye on a 2024 presidential bid – as long as former President Donald Trump does not decide to run. ‘I support Donald Trump for president. I’ve directly encouraged him to run and he gives me every indication he will,’ the Florida Republican texted The Post Wednesday. ‘If Trump doesn’t run, I’m sure I could defeat whatever remains of Joe Biden by 2024.’ Gaetz, who said he hasn’t formally launched an exploratory committee, is facing a federal investigation into allegations of sex trafficking of a minor, a sexual relationship with a minor and potential public corruption in addition to a Congressional Ethics investigation. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing” – New York Post.

Conservatives Clay Travis and Buck Sexton have been designated the successors to the Rush Limbaugh Show on the Premiere Radio Network, taking up the esteemed three-hour timeslot starting June 21st, the Wall Street Journal Reports.

Sexton, 37, and Travis, 42, mark an attempt by the network to draw a younger audience than the elderly-leaning demographic that listened to Limbaugh, who died February 17th of cancer after a lifetime of drug abuse and cigar smoking; Limbaugh was 70 years old.

Sexton already hosts the Buck Sexton Show on Premiere, and was also host of a show on The Blaze network. Travis, a self-proclaimed “radical moderate,” has recently endeared himself to conservatives by spreading conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccine. He’s never hosted a political show, but he is a sports commentator. The duo’s coronation is no doubt a disappointment to the previously rumored replacements – angry meathead podcaster Dan Bongino and the unhinged NRA woman who thinks Thomas the Tank Engine is secretly in the Ku Klux Klan.

General Motors on Thursday said it plans to reopen five manufacturing and assembly plants worldwide to full capacity after the locations were shut down due to a global shortage of semiconductor chips, Reuters reports.

One plant in the United States, the Lansing Grand River location which employs 1,600 workers that makes the Chevrolet Camaro and various Cadillac models, will reopen on June 10th after being shut down May 10th due to the chip shortage.

Two plants in Mexico will restart production May 31st.  A location in Ontario, idled since February 8th, will reopen June 14th and continue until a scheduled shutdown for maintenance and updates July 2nd.  And a plant in South Korea will resume full operation May 31st after being limited to 50% capacity on April 26th.

CNBC: “Former President Donald Trump and his onetime personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to incite the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol. The lawsuit, brought by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and 10 other House Democrats, accuses the defendants of violating the federal Ku Klux Klan Act on Jan. 6 by fomenting a mob of Trump’s supporters to stop Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Separate motions to dismiss the suit on Thursday argued that Trump’s and Giuliani’s remarks at a pre-riot rally near the Capitol were protected under the First Amendment. Trump at that event had heaped pressure on Republican lawmakers – as well as then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the joint session – to reject key states’ electoral results.”

“He called on his followers to march to the Capitol, and told the crowd, ‘If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.’ But Trump’s lawyer Jesse Binnall noted at the top of his dismissal request that Trump had also told the audience to ‘peacefully and patriotically make [their voices] heard.’ Democrats’ claims ‘directly contravene the absolute immunity’ conveyed by the Constitution on the then-president and ‘fail to plausibly plead any viable conspiracy theory’ against Trump, Binnall said. Giuliani during the rally had called for ‘trial by combat.’ But the former New York mayor’s lawyer argued in his motion to dismiss Thompson’s lawsuit that ‘no reasonable reader or listener would have perceived Giuliani’s speech as an instruction to march to the Capitol, violently breach the perimeter and enter the Capitol building, and then violently terrorize Congress into not engaging in the Electoral Certification. The Democrats’ conspiracy claim ‘defies all plausibility and believability on its face,’ Giuliani’s lawyer wrote. The lawsuit also names as defendants the extremist groups the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and Warboys.”

“The Senate just confirmed Christine Wormuth to be Army Secretary by unanimous consent after confirming – then un-confirming her – last night. She’ll be the first woman to serve as the Army’s top civilian” reports Politico defense correspondent Connor O’Brien.

“Allen Weisselberg is in the hot seat – and that’s bad news for Donald Trump and his family. Assorted news reports have identified Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, as a key figure in the criminal and civil investigations of the Trump business being conducted by the New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney, who recently empaneled a grand jury to review evidence against the Trump company, its executives, and possibly Trump. Moreover, the New York Times recently reported that Weisselberg himself is being criminally investigated for possible tax fraud, raising the prospect that investigators are looking to flip the longtime Trump executive into a cooperating witness.”

“Now there’s more trouble for Weisselberg and Trump World. Previously unreported emails attached to a little-noticed court document filed earlier this month show that Weisselberg is tied to another Trump financial scandal: the Trump inauguration case, which is currently being investigated by the attorney general of Washington, DC” – Mother Jones.

My statement on the January 6th Commission: pic.twitter.com/ZfNhQfKzmh

— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) May 27, 2021

CNN: “Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to criticize former President Donald Trump and his hold on the Republican Party during a speech Thursday night, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. Ryan, a critic of the former President in the past, is expected to say at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, that Republicans must move away from the ‘populist appeal of one personality’ because ‘then we’re not going anywhere… Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads. And here’s one reality we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere. Voters looking for Republican leaders want to see independence and mettle.'”

“Although Ryan doesn’t mention Trump by name in his criticism, the expected remarks by the Republican Party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee will add him to a growing list of establishment Republicans who are publicly objecting to Trump’s grip on the party. Like-minded Republicans, including Ryan’s predecessor, John Boehner, have lamented the current direction of the party, which has actively rebuked and ostracized members who have taken on Trump and his brand of populist and nativist politics. The excerpts indicate that Ryan plans to outline a path forward for the Republican Party in the Biden era. According to the excerpts, the only time Ryan will reference Trump by name is to praise him for how, at the start of 2020, the US ‘saw such incredibly powerful and inclusive economic growth,’ though he suggests more credit is due to Reagan-inspired policy rather than Trumpism.”

“President Biden will propose a $6 trillion budget on Friday that would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion throughout the next decade. Documents obtained by The New York Times show that Mr. Biden’s first budget request as president calls for the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. The growth is driven by Mr. Biden’s two-part agenda to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure and substantially expand the social safety net, contained in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, along with other planned increases in discretionary spending. The proposal shows the sweep of Mr. Biden’s ambitions to wield government power to help more Americans attain the comforts of a middle-class life and to lift U.S. industry to better compete globally in an economy the administration believes will be dominated by a race to reduce energy emissions and combat climate change.”

“Mr. Biden’s plan to fund his agenda by raising taxes on corporations and high earners would begin to shrink budget deficits in the 2030s. Administration officials have said the jobs and families plans would be fully offset by tax increases over the course of 15 years, which the budget request backs up. In the meantime, the United States would run significant deficits as it borrows money to finance his plans. Under Mr. Biden’s proposal, the federal budget deficit would hit $1.8 trillion in 2022, even as the economy rebounds from the pandemic recession to grow at what the administration predicts would be its fastest annual pace since the early 1980s. It would recede slightly in the following years before growing again to nearly $1.6 trillion by 2031” – New York Times.