-Toomey background checks bill in 2013.

HEITKAMP: “I no longer have to answer your questions.”

*elevator doors close*

https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1529594078177918990


In 2021, Heitkamp lobbied against Democratic Party efforts to raise taxes on corporations, large inheritances and the superwealthy to pay for a $3.5 trillion social spending bill. The former Democratic Senator-turned corporate lobbyist John Breaux recruited her to advocate against taxation of large inheritances.

Actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men in the United Kingdom.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/kevin-spacey-charged-four-counts-sexual-assault-uk-155644471.html



Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Services's Special Crime Division, said, “The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men.

“He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation.

“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr. Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”

The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and in the English county of Gloucestershire in April 2013. It follows a review of the evidence gathered by London's Metropolitan Police in its previous investigation into the actor.

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The staple bread helps native chefs move one step closer to food sovereignty.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/what-is-bannock-bread



In British Columbia, Indigenous knowledge is passed over baskets of warm bannock. The bread, also known as the “Aboriginal staff of life,” is a connection to the past, a staple among nations that have existed long ago. But it continues to have a place at the table, Indigenous or otherwise, as the kind of comfort food that has no boundaries.

Bannock can be many things. The pillowy dough—a simple concoction of flour, water, baking powder, and salt—is either baked, fried, or cooked over an open fire. Depending on how you prepare it, the bread can sit crumbly and scone-like alongside a selection of jams, serve as a bun on a wild salmon burger, or, with a little bit of oil, take the form of a donut.

Inez Cook, founder of Vancouver’s only Indigenous-owned restaurant Salmon n’ Bannock, remembers making bannock at summer camp—a place where many British Columbians first encounter the bread.

“Sometimes I swear my summer camp bannock was cheated, and it was probably Bisquick,” Cook jokes. “But I have fond memories of making it on the fire and putting corn syrup on it.” Though Cook knew it was a native bread, it was not something she ate at home.

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The Great Replacement Theory is great for Republicans so they'll keep using it until the unthinkable happens.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/nothing-will-shock-republicans-enough



With each politically motivated mass shooting, there is the increasingly desperate hope that this will be the one. This will be the red line crossed that will snap Republicans out of it. This time will be different and Republicans will rally back to decency and sanity. Tuesday’s horrific Texas slaughter does not appear to be political in nature but do not expect the Republican response to be any less vile. Ben, Bob, and I have discussed this before on the Banter Roundtable Podcast and I am more convinced than ever that there is no amount of bloodshed, no body count large enough, to “shock the conscience” of Republicans. We are well beyond any such possibility.

The bodies weren’t even cold

Within hours of the Buffalo shooting, the right was in full PR mode, trying to deflect attention from their direct culpability in the tragedy. Even as white nationalists across the country cackled with glee, their loudest public voices were shocked, shocked, that anyone would think these killings had anything to do with them. Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers, a particularly odious rising star in the party, wants you to know that Buffalo was a false flag operation. False flag operation claims are a favorite of the right. They get to celebrate the murder of the people they hate and are required to take none of the responsibility.

A few days later, the genetic experiment gone wrong known as Ben Shapiro penned a screed demanding to know why the press was claiming the right believes replacement theory. Maybe it’s because Republicans, Fox, AM Hate Radio, and right-wing hate sites have been pushing it for some time now? Tucker Carlson has been explicitly selling this exact message to millions of eager consumers of white nationalist hate. The right, in general, didn’t use to believe in replacement theory. They were aware of the ongoing demographic shift in the country which is why they embraced racialized voter suppression as a way of life. But once they succumbed to fascist and white nationalist forces, they began to justify the most extreme behavior imaginable.

The Great Replacement Theory is great for Republicans

The press made a lot of noise about “Replacement Theory” in the wake of the Buffalo murders. The idea itself is very simple: racist white people believe that there is a plot to replace them with immigrants. This plot is sometimes controlled by shadowy “elites” or Democrats but usually, it’s Jews (we Jews are the preferred supervillains of white nationalist myths). At first blush, this doesn’t seem like a very useful platform to run on as a Republican. It’s explicitly racist and, as the press assured us for decades, the Republican base is totally not racist. Not racist, of course, as long as one ignores the Southern Strategy, Ronald Reagan’s entire presidency, Willie Horton, the reaction to Barrack Obama’s entire presidency, Trump, Charlottesville, etc.

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Justice Karen Baker prevailed against challenger Gunner DeLay, who sought to push the state’s highest court further to the right with his stances on the death penalty and abortion. But the right forced a second justice into a runoff.

https://boltsmag.org/conservative-loses-bid-to-oust-arkansas-supreme-court-justice/



Shortly after news broke earlier this month that the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade, Gunner DeLay took to Facebook to post a brief video. After introducing himself as the “conservative choice” for Arkansas Supreme Court, he implored voters to appreciate the heightened stakes of his upcoming election. “We learned as a nation that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned…, which means that issue will go back to the states,” he said. “In my opinion, that makes the race for the Arkansas supreme court the most important race on your ballot because the next round of legal battles will be fought before the supreme court of our state.”

DeLay lost handily on Tuesday. Justice Karen Baker, an incumbent who has been on the court since 2011 prevailed 64 percent to 36 percent against DeLay, who is a lower-court judge. In the state’s other contested supreme court election, though, Justice Robin Wynne fell just short of the 50 percent threshold that would have won him an additional term outright and avoided a runoff election. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he received 49.6 percent, with Chris Carnahan, the former longtime chair of the Republican Party, at 29 percent, and David Sterling, another right-wing candidate, at 22 percent.

Wynne, a former Democratic lawmaker, and Carnahan will now move to a June 21 runoff, giving conservatives another shot at picking-up a seat. Judicial races are technically nonpartisan in Arkansas. But conservatives pushed to oust Baker and Wynne this year and lock in right-wing dominance on the court with challengers who have close GOP ties. Many supreme courts are seeing similar tussles for power this year.

The Arkansas supreme court is already no refuge for civil rights. In April, it dismissed a lower-court ruling that had stayed a series of new Republican restrictions on voting rights. Weeks later, in a 4-3 ruling, the court’s most conservative justices eroded the rights of plaintiffs to seek tort remedies. But the court occasionally issues opinions that anger state conservatives, who have come to dominate all other state institutions. In April, the court enabled a school district to impose a mask requirement, reversing a lower court’s restraining order that had blocked it. DeLay used the ruling as part of his arsenal of attacks against Baker.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-foot-soldier-ramzan-kadyrov-vows-to-take-poland-in-six-seconds-after-ukraine



Chechen leader and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov claims Russia’s war in Ukraine is already won and Poland is next on the agenda.

In his latest propaganda video posted to social media, Kadyrov appeared to try to counter reports of humiliating setbacks and plunging morale among Russian troops.

“Ukraine is already a settled issue,” he said. “I am interested in Poland. After Ukraine, if there is a team, we will show what we are capable of in six seconds. Better take your weapons and your mercenaries,” he said, apparently addressing Poland.

The Chechen strongman’s troops in Ukraine, known as Kadyrovtsy, have been accused of some of the most heinous war crimes since the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, but Kadyrov himself has gained attention more for his far-fetched boasts on social media and clumsily staged videos that depict him playing an active role on the front line.

Read it at New Voice Ukraine

https://punchbowl.news/archive/5-26-22-punchbowl-news-am/



Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top lawmaker for all of 490 days, is temporarily setting aside his natural “punch-Republicans-in-the-nose” instincts. Instead, Schumer is casting his lot with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) in a bid to notch a gun control deal after back-to-back deadly mass shootings in two of the nation’s largest states. The legislative and political impacts here are worth dwelling on for a moment.

Schumer, who is quite attuned to political optics, is allowing the Senate to leave D.C. without taking a gun vote even though 19 children and two adults were shot to death Tuesday in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. On May 17, in Schumer’s own state, 10 Black people were murdered in a racist shooting at a supermarket. Schumer could’ve put any number of background check bills on the floor this week, forced Republicans to vote against them and scored a short-term political victory against a GOP he describes as beholden to the gun lobby. It seemed to be a tempting political option for Schumer. He came under pressure from his party to do something – and quickly.

Instead, Schumer is allowing Murphy – the Senate’s staunchest gun control advocate – to once again try to cobble together a bipartisan coalition to tighten federal gun laws. Schumer and Murphy understand the task at hand is daunting, the prospects of success are dim. Murphy hasn’t been able to achieve this consensus in more than a year. Murphy has to essentially write off roughly 35 of the 50 Senate Republicans, most of whom would never consider any tightening of gun laws.

Instead, Murphy needs to see if he can find 10 Republicans out of the remainder to support putting in place red flag laws and/or strengthening background checks, while also balancing the political reality that interest in a compromise will wane as time goes on. Momentum is important in an institution like Congress. The Senate is scheduled to leave later today for a 10-day Memorial Day recess. Which Republicans are in play for Murphy? That’s the question of the moment. Based on our reporting and dozens of conversations we’ve had with lawmakers over the last few days, the following GOP senators have expressed various levels of interest in considering gun legislation: Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.).

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fuck off Toad!!!