Posts

Showing posts from June, 2022

Four election deniers appeared at hundreds of events in 45 states since January 6th coup attempt: NPR

Image
Even after Donald Trump's lies about election fraud resulted in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, four prominent election deniers have toured the country pushing the conspiracy theory. An NPR investigation tracked events attended by four prominent election deniers and found they have spoken at at least 308 events in 45 states. The four included in the investigation included MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who was at 45 events in 20 states. Former Ohio high school teacher Douglas Frank, also known as "Dr. Frank," appeared at 137 events in 29 states. Former New Mexico State University business law professor David Clements was at 62 events in 25 states. Former Army officer Seth Keshel, also known as "Captain K," attended 121 events in 36 states. "The scale of their movements paints a portrait of an election denial movement that has evolved into a nationwide force, beyond just swing states — and despite the Jan. 6 Committee's investigation and effo

How the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council turns disinformation into law

Image
State lawmakers introduced nearly 2,900 bills based on ALEC templates from 2010 through 2018. More than 600 of them became law. In June 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill banning the state from contracting with or investing in businesses that divest from coal, oil or natural gas companies. For Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian—one of the state’s top energy regulators—the message was clear: “Boycott Texas, and we’ll boycott you.” This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life , a project of the Independent Media Institute. Since the beginning of this year, lawmakers in Indiana, Oklahoma and West Virginia have introduced bills that read a lot like the Texas anti-divestment law, and legislators in a dozen other states have also expressed support for the legislation’s objective. Mere coincidence? Not at all. The template for the bill, titled the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act , was supplied by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALE

SCOTUS agrees to hear voting rights case that 'endangers the very fabric of our democracy'

Image
As SCOTUS-watchers scrambled to stay abreast of a rush of rulings affecting climate , immigration , Indigenous rights, and other policy areas, the nation's highest court on Thursday said it would hear oral arguments this October in a case involving a controversial legal theory that one advocacy group says is "threatening the future of voting rights." The case, Moore v. Harper , involves North Carolina's congressional map, which was drawn by the Republican-controlled state Legislature and which the state Supreme Court struck down as racially discriminatory. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected requests by Republican officials in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to restore GOP-rigged maps in a 6-3 ruling in favor of replacement maps. The North Carolina replacement map was drawn by a nonpartisan panel of experts and gives Democrats and Republicans six likely "safe" seats while two will be more competitive. "Today's news from the U.S. Supreme

01 July 2022 July 01, 2022 at 12:05AM

Image
The Digital Edition is an exclusive product available to our subscribers The post 01 July 2022 appeared first on The Mail & Guardian .

News24.com | Oscar van Heerden | Ukraine, Russia and SA: The non-sensical proxy war of the G7

In case some were wondering why President Ramaphosa's administration got an invite, besides being a diverse economy and one of the largest in Africa, we are also a reliable partner in global affairs and many countries value and appreciate that of us, writes Oscar van Heerden. from News24 Top Stories https://ift.tt/kRh4jmt via sinceretalk

'Unfathomable': Critics knock Senate Democrats for letting Republicans hold up federal judgeships

Image
Warning that U.S. President Joe Biden may lose his chance to confirm more circuit and district court nominees after the midterm elections if Republicans win a Senate majority, legal scholars are calling on Democratic lawmakers to immediately ramp up confirmations of federal judges. Democrats have confirmed 16 nominees to the country's 13 circuit courts, which have the last word on federal appeals before they proceed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The party needs to double its confirmations by November, Bloomberg Law reported Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings last week for nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for the 6th Circuit, but 11 current or expected vacancies do not have a nominee lined up to fill them. To speed up the process, Rakim Brooks, president of progressive advocacy group Alliance for Justice, suggested to Bloomberg that the committee confirm judicial nominees by order of priority rather

The United States is extending its military into Zambia

Image
An interview with Dr. Fred M’membe of the Socialist Party. On April 26, 2022, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced that they had set up an office in the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. According to AFRICOM Brigadier General Peter Bailey, Deputy Director for Strategy, Engagement and Programs, the Office of Security Cooperation would be based in the U.S. Embassy building. Social media in Zambia buzzed with rumors about the creation of a U.S. military base in the country. Defense Minister Ambrose Lufuma released a statement to say that “Zambia has no intention whatsoever of establishing or hosting any military bases on Zambian soil.” “Over our dead bodies” will the United States have a military base in Zambia, said Dr. Fred M’membe, the president of the Socialist Party of Zambia. This article was produced by Globetrotter . Brigadier General Bailey of AFRICOM had met with Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema during his visit to Lusaka. Hichilema’s government faces

American gun culture mythologizes the Old West. But gun control was commonplace

Image
In the wake of the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings, 70% of Republicans said it is more important to protect gun rights than to control gun violence, while 92% of Democrats and 54% of independents expressed the opposite view. Just weeks after those mass shootings, Republicans and gun rights advocates hailed the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated New York state’s gun permit law and declared that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense. Mayor Eric Adams, expressing his opposition to the ruling, suggested that the court’s decision would turn New York City into the “ Wild West .” Contrary to the imagery of the Wild West, however, many towns in the real Old West had restrictions on the carrying of guns that were, I would suggest, stricter than the one just invalidated by the Supreme Court. Support for gun rights among Republicans played an important role in determining the contents of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act , th

Alex Jones claims that 'Donald Trump is set to announce his run for 2024' on Monday July 4th

Image
Infowars host Alex Jones claimed on Wednesday that a source close to former President Donald Trump told him that Trump is planning to declare his candidacy for a 2024 White House bid on Monday, July 4th. "Donald Trump is set to announce his run for 2024 on Monday, which is a very special day. We're shooting this right now during a break during my live show on June 29th, Wednesday edition. That means in five days, on July 4th, President Trump is gonna announce he's running for his second term," Jones said. "Imagine the explosive political, cultural, economic, medical, financial implications of that." Jones noted that Trump's "confidant" and veteran Republican operative Roger Stone, whom Trump pardoned last December after he was convicted on multiple counts of making false statements, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering, "confirmed that the first six months of last year, Trump wasn't gonna run. They messed with him so bad,