https://youtu.be/01P13Sgkss0

Texas Republican Senator (and Canadian spokesperson for the Cancun Tourism Bureau) Rafael “Ted” Cruz, speaking at a podium during a propaganda event Thursday, amazingly claimed that Republicans didn’t abuse their power in the Senate to push through their judicial picks.

“You didn’t see Republicans, when we had control of the Senate, try to rig the game,” Cruz said without an iota of self-awareness.  “You didn’t see us try to pack the Court.”

I would refer Senator Cruz to the Wikipedia articles on the Merrick Garland Supreme Court Nomination and the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court Nomination for general information about how the GOP made up rules to pack the Supreme Court with their chosen nominees.

“A prominent Republican candidate for Virginia governor said that the guilty verdict against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin this week made her ‘sick’ and that jurors didn’t acquit because they feared a violent backlash. ‘Friends, today’s verdict makes me sick,’ state Sen. Amanda F. Chase (Chesterfield) told a gathering in King William County on Tuesday shortly after a jury found Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd. ‘I am so concerned about our law enforcement right now quitting. And you should be, too.’ Her comments, captured in a video Chase posted to Facebook, drew rebukes from state and national Democratic groups. American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, circulated video of Chase’s remarks on Twitter, drawing about 150,000 views” the Washington Post reports.

“Before noon Wednesday, a least one of the five Democrats running for governor was trying to raise money off Chase’s remarks. ‘Virginia left Amanda Chase’s bigoted ideas in the 20th century,’ state Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond) said in a fundraising appeal that accused Chase of espousing ‘blatantly racist ideas.’ But Chase, a self-described ‘Trump in heels’ who prides herself on provocative statements, stood by her remarks. ‘I’m concerned that the decision was politically motivated more to prevent civil unrest than to serve justice,’ she later said in a written statement. ‘The decision made today sends a clear message to law enforcement; the justice system doesn’t have your back.’ With those remarks, Chase has lined up well to the right of some of her party’s most conservative leaders, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). A Trump loyalist, Jordan would not say explicitly whether he agreed with the verdict but told CNN: ‘The justice system works. I said last summer that what happened to George Floyd was as wrong as wrong can be, and the justice system will work and that’s what we saw happened.'”

CNN: “Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s office told the state Republican Party on Wednesday that an investigation had found no ‘evidentiary support’ for its allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. ‘And while the NVGOP raises policy concerns about the integrity of mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, and same-day voter registration, these concerns do not amount to evidentiary support for the contention that the 2020 general election was plagued by widespread voter fraud,’ said the letter, addressed to the Nevada Republican Party. Cegavske, the only statewide Republican office holder, said in the letter that elections staff had inventoried and labeled four boxes of materials that had been delivered to the state Capitol on March 4 – and then to her office – and had investigated the accompanying allegations of voter fraud. Of the 122,918 records to support the accompanying allegations filed by members of the Nevada GOP, Cegavske’s office narrowed down the list of unique ‘Election Integrity Violation Reports’ to 3,963, some of which were already under investigation. An accompanying report fleshed out why many of the complaints were unsubstantiated.”

“The Nevada GOP filed almost 4,000 complaints about noncitizens voting. But the investigative report noted that ‘the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as U.S. Courts of Appeal in the Ninth Circuit and elsewhere, have ruled that election officials cannot lawfully require documentary proof of citizenship as a condition of voter registration. Nevada law is consistent with federal law in this regard.’ As for allegations that voters who didn’t live in Nevada received mail-in ballots, the state concluded there were so many ways a voter might still be qualified as a permanent resident while living out of state that it wasn’t cost effective to continue to track down the information. Among the complaints still being investigated is one against members of the Nevada Native Vote Project for violating state and federal law involving some form of payment to influence a voter. The state is also investigating 10 cases of deceased people voting, and the secretary’s office forwarded 10 cases of double voting to law enforcement out of 18,314 such complaints filed by the Nevada GOP. The report bolsters the consensus of election experts that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevada or any other US state during the 2020 election.”

Hunter and Shamu? Memos reveal effort by Biden son to build SeaWorld parks in communist China that also included top Joe Biden aide, ex-Obama ambassador and Chinese state-owned bank. | Just The News https://t.co/cSUJ9PXY0L

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) April 22, 2021

Solomon has to know he fucked up. It’s pretty easy to conclude that when in 2019 he pushed that Burisma quid pro quo bullshit into the White House and got Trump impeached for using it to coerce the Ukrainian president into announcing an investigation, they burned the powder that the MAGA Reich should’ve kept dry for the October Surprise in 2020. There’s no way he’s continuing to “report” on Hunter Biden with the belief that it would have any impact politically or electorally for the Biden White House. It’s sad no matter what, but I think it’s slightly less sad if he’s only doing it to save face. It’d be downright tragic if he actually still sincerely believes this shit.

“The Trump administration put up bureaucratic obstacles that stalled approximately $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico and then obstructed an investigation into the holdup, according to an inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post. Congress requested the investigation into the delays to recovery aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left residents of the U.S. territory without power and clean water for months. But, the report said, former Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson and another former HUD official declined to be interviewed by investigators during the course of the 2019 examination. Access to HUD information was delayed or denied on several occasions. And several former senior administration officials in the Office of Management and Budget refused to provide requested information about decision-making related to the Puerto Rico relief funds.”

“‘Delays and denials of access and refusals to cooperate negatively affected the ability of the [Office of Inspector General] to conduct this review,’ the report said. The 46-page report presents an incomplete picture of the political influence of the Trump White House on delaying disaster relief for the struggling island. Still, the inspector general found unprecedented procedural hurdles set by the White House budget office – in addition to an extended partial federal government shutdown that also produced delays. The OMB required HUD’s notice of grant funds to go through an interagency review process before approval, preventing HUD from publishing its draft notice of funding by its target date. The OMB had never before required such a review process for a notice allocating disaster-recovery funds, according to the inspector general’s report, and there had been no previous discussion about requiring the extra step” – Washington Post.

AP: “India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday as a grim coronavirus surge in the world’s second-most populous country sends more and more sick people into a fragile health care system critically short of hospital beds and oxygen. The 314,835 infections added in the past 24 hours raise India’s total past 15.9 million cases since the pandemic began. It’s the second-highest total in the world next to the United States. India has nearly 1.4 billion people. Fatalities rose by 2,104 in the past 24 hours, raising India’s overall death toll to 184,657, the Health Ministry said. A large number of hospitals are reporting acute shortages of beds and medicine and are running on dangerously low levels of oxygen. The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to save people’s lives. ‘You can’t have people die because there is no oxygen. Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency,’ the judges said responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking its intervention.”

I’m glad I ran into you today @AOC to plan our debate about the Green New Deal.

After I finish reading all 14 pages, like we agreed, I’ll schedule time for our debate.#MTGvsAOC pic.twitter.com/viuH5Uj0oD

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) April 21, 2021

https://youtu.be/uVGwkof9nAk

Alan Dershowitz, lawyer (and professor who repeatedly “accidentally” shows up for class without his pants), asserts that there’s no reason convicted murderer Derek Chauvin should be held in prison pending his sentencing hearing and likely appeal.  He is, after all, Dersh claims without justification, that he is unlikely to flee the jurisdiction.  He’s famous, after all, Dersh says; everyone knows his face!

“What if his conviction [sic] gets overturned?” Dersh wallows, missing the point that Chauvin was convicted on three charges.  “How is he going to get those two years back?”  Perhaps Dersh should ask how George Floyd is going to get his two years back.

With many nations–including India and some in Central and South America–seeing new peaks in the number of new cases and hospitalizations, national health systems are being stretched to the limit and patients’ lives are being put at risk.

In India, which has seen more than a quarter million new cases daily, hospitals are running out of hospital beds and oxygen, as well as sedatives for patients who are coming out of medically-induced comas when they are ventilated.  The country has taken the drastic measure of banning people other than essential workers from even being outside their homes.

Ecuador is taking similar actions as hospital are on the verge of collapsing.  Over weekends and on Monday through Thursday evenings, only essential workers are allowed to circulate on streets in 16 of the country’s 24 provinces.  The government said the measures will stay in effect for 24 days.

While the peak in the US has subsided in recent weeks, the US is still typically in the top five in the number of new cases reported daily, as public health professionals express concern that certain parts of the nation have prematurely relaxed guidelines.

https://youtu.be/i2B1hZouH_I

I think it’s time we start asking if Tucker Carlson is alright in the head.  On Wednesday, discussing the racist “replacement theory,” Carlson broke out into weird, maniacal laughter that’s more cartoon villain-esque than appropriate.

On Tuesday, he broke out laughing while claiming police weren’t doing their jobs and simply letting hordes of non-existent rioters break windows at Macy’s (?) (shown after the break).  Carlson’s sociopathic laughter came after an expert in policing told Carlson that Derek Chauvin was justly convicted of murder.

Claiming to be bankrupt so they can relocate and avoid a New York state investigation into self-dealing and other organizational corruption, the National Rifle Association will still dedicate two million dollars to oppose an expected Biden gun control agenda, the Washington Post reports.

The group will lobby to oppose the nomination of David Chipman to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Because of NRA opposition, there hasn’t been a Senate-confirmed ATF director since 2006.

Also on the NRA agenda:  advertising in Maine, Montana and West Virginia propagandizing to “stop Biden’s gun grab.”

President Joe Biden will declare the early 20th Century Turkish campaign against the Armenians a genocide, a label to which the Turkish government has repeatedly denied, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Beginning in 1915 during the middle of World War I, the Turks, then known as the Ottoman Empire, systemically undertook an effort to slaughter, starve and isolate Armenians in an effort to exterminate the nation.  It’s been labeled an ethnic genocide in which more than one millions Armenians perished.

The Turks have claimed that the Armenians were revolting against the Ottoman government and that the action against them was necessary to suppress revolutionaries. 

“William Van Aacken shared this video of the Washington County pileup that was captured from his vehicle” reports Fox 6 Milwaukee. Hats off to Van Aacken, who probably pwns noobs in Forza.

BBC: “A hospital employee in Italy has been accused of skipping work on full pay for 15 years, local media report. The man is alleged to have stopped turning up to work at the Ciaccio hospital in the southern city of Catanzaro in 2005. He is now being investigated for fraud, extortion and abuse of office, Italian news agency Ansa reports. He was reportedly paid €538,000 (£464,000) in total over the years he is thought not to have been working. Six managers at the hospital are also being investigated in connection with the alleged absenteeism. The arrests are the result of a lengthy police investigation into absenteeism and suspected fraud in the Italian public sector. The employee was a civil servant, and was assigned to a job in the hospital in 2005. It was at this point he stopped going into work, the police said.”

Vanita Gupta, whose nomination to be Associate Attorney General was being blocked by Senate Republicans for no apparent reason other than obstructionism, was confirmed by the Senate to fill the position after Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski defected, CNN reports.

Gupta becomes the first woman of color to take the senior position in the Justice Department, the third highest job after Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant AG Lisa Monaco.  Gupta has experience in the DoJ, having led the civil rights division during the Obama Administration.

Republicans claimed that Gupta was a “radical” nominee, although they could not point out to a specific radical act or statement other than her career supporting civil rights.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Gupta had “a record of astoundingly radical positions.” although he could not detail anything radical.  Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said it was because Gupta supported the legalization of drugs like cannabis.

Miami Herald: “Civil-rights attorneys are challenging a new set of state laws that establish a crime of ‘mob intimidation’ and enhance penalties for riot-related violence and looting, arguing in a federal lawsuit that the measures unconstitutionally ‘seek to arrest the peaceful expression of free speech.’ The challenge was filed Wednesday, two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial package (HB 1), one of his top legislative priorities. The governor laid out a framework for the legislation in September in response to nationwide protests after the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Republican lawmakers gave final approval to the changes last week, ignoring objections by Democrats and civil-rights groups that predicted the proposal would be challenged in court. A non-profit organization known as the Lawyers Matter Task Force and other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in federal court in Orlando, naming as defendants DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Orange County Sheriff John Mina.”

“The legislation ‘is a horrendous injustice to Florida citizens and infringes on multiple constitutional rights,’ Shannon Ligon, founder of the Lawyers Matter Task Force, said in a prepared statement Wednesday. The laws, among other things, create a new felony crime of ‘aggravated rioting’ that carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a new crime of ‘mob intimidation,’ which makes it unlawful ‘for a person, assembled with two or more other persons and acting with a common intent, to use force or threaten to use imminent force, to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person to do or refrain from doing any act or to assume, abandon, or maintain a particular viewpoint against his or her will.'”

In a symbolic action that their members will violate repeatedly, Senate Republicans voted to continue their stated earmark ban, a public statement that they would not seek mark-ups to legislation that would direct funding to their states, Roll Call reports.

The caucus did not vote on the earmark ban; they continued the status quo from the previous session’s Party rules.  That includes the fact that the caucus’s ban on earmarks isn’t binding to any member of the caucus.

“The rules, as I understand it, are not binding on individual members. So I think we’ll see what people do and what people will refrain,” Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said.

During a House hearing on the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton disclosed that a Capitol Police official radioed officers should only be “only looking for any anti-Trump,” Politico reports.

California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, the chair of the Committee on House Administration, asked Bolton about the radio transmissions, which were revealed in documents Bolton’s office turned over to the Committee.

A Committee aide said the Committee “is recently in receipt of new documents and emails related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, including materials which brought to light these issues the Chair asked the (inspector general) about today.  The Committee is continuing to review those documents and emails and intends to review the relevant recorded audio when it is available.”

“Climate scientists have warned for years that a warming planet would cause more extreme storms, like the one that walloped Texas in February, knocking out power and leaving millions in a deep freeze. Yet as the snow fell and the wind howled, some looked for other explanations for the storm and its resulting power outages. The conservative website The Gateway Pundit made the false claim that President Joe Biden’s energy policies somehow prevented Texas plants from generating the power the state needed and ‘led to Texans literally freezing to death.’ The next day, the conspiracy theory website Infowars published a similarly untrue story that was shared 70,000 times on Facebook and Twitter. Four days later, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-CO, tweeted to her 100,000 followers that Biden’s energy policies were ‘leaving millions of Texans freezing to death.’ All those claims were false. In fact, an emergency request granted by the Biden administration gave the state authority to exceed federal environmental limits in order to provide enough power to Texans.”

“To climate and misinformation researchers, claims like these mark an important shift: Instead of focusing on denialism, climate misinformation is getting local, focused on extreme weather events tied to a changing climate – such the Texas storm or recent wildfires that ravaged California and Australia. ‘It just isn’t credible to deny climate change or the impacts it’s having. People see it with their own two eyes,’ said Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann. ‘So there’s a shift in tactics. Now it’s softer forms of denial, and efforts to diminish the impacts of climate change'” – AP.