Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy had a deranged meltdown yesterday during a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee and verbally attacked a witness for daring to retweet a posting on social media in which Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was called a “sick fuck” by climate protesters in March.
According to Mediaite, “Manchin was confronted by a group of climate activists at Harvard University, where one protester called him a ‘sick fuck’ before he was forcibly removed from the room. Supran retweeted a post by the organization responsible for disrupting Manchin’s visit at the university.”
The witness, Dr. Geoffrey Supran, Professor of Environmental Science & Policy and Director of Climate Accountability Lab at the University of Miami, told Kennedy, “Big oil is the new big tobacco. As a scholar of disinformation, I do not use the word lie’ lightly. But no other word adequately describes the oil industry’s brazen efforts to mislead the public about its history of misleading the public.”
Rather than engage Supran on the issue of climate change and public policy, Kennedy tried to pick a fight with him.
Supran countered.
Kennedy got his comeuppance on social media, where many noted that he is indeed a sick fuck.
Careful what questions you ask, Sen. Kennedy. You might not like the answers.
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accused MSNBC host Katy Tur of being a Donald Trump “apologist” during a tense back-and-forth on the network yesterday afternoon, and all Tur could do was whine that she’d always been tough in her reporting on the disgraced former president.
The exchange was part of a larger conversation the two were having about the accomplishments of President Joe Biden and how they compare with the Trump administration.
“Donald Trump is a great threat to our democracy. What is a democracy, what are the pillars? What are the pillars?” Pelosi asked.
“A free and independent press to tell the story,” she continued. “To keep everybody informed of what people are saying and doing. That transparency is essential.”
“Independent judiciary. An independent judiciary when they’re practically threatening on TV exposure of jurors in the trial of the president, or any trial, and any of that. What is an independent judiciary about? It’s about free and fair elections. And what do they do, but suppress the vote?”Independent judiciary. An independent judiciary when they’re practically threatening on TV exposure of jurors in the trial of the president, or any trial, and any of that. What is an independent judiciary about? It’s about free and fair elections. And what do they do, but suppress the vote?
“So, there’s nothing in his ‘performance,’ if that’s the word we’ll use, what he has done, that would indicate he cares, prioritizes, or ever valued, or ever did anything to support a democracy.”
The former Speaker of the House added, “And now on the ballot saying he should have immunity from whatever he might do, I mean, really, I have sympathy and respect for everybody who votes. I’m just glad people vote. I know some of them will never, will always reject those of us who might look different to them in leadership and the rest, and that’s that.”
“But there are those who have real legitimate concerns about immigration, globalization, innovation, and what does that mean to their job and their family’s future? And we have to address those concerns. And Joe Biden is doing that. Created nine million jobs in his term in office. Donald Trump has the worst record of job loss of a president. So, we just have to make sure people know.”
Tur interjected, “That was a global pandemic.”
Clearly irritated by the suggestion from Tur, Pelosi countered, “He had the worst record of any president. We’ve had other concerns in our country. If you want to be an apologist for Donald Trump, that may be your role, but it ain’t mine.”
Tur: “I don’t think anybody can accuse me of that.”
Actually, Katy, they most certainly can accuse you of just that. Trying to cover for the biggest failure of the Trump administration, their handling of the COVID pandemic which led to a jobless recession and over a million deaths is indeed being an apologist for the worst U.S. president of the past 100 years.
The 2024 election should not be the least bit competitive when you lay Biden’s accomplishments next to Trump’s incompetence and insurrection. Democracy is on the ballot. If we value this republic, we’d damn well better show up in November and reject Trump.
A 2021 Twitter post from Hillary Clinton went viral on social media over the weekend after resurfacing in response to South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem admitting that she once murdered a pet puppy who failed to obey her commands.
“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” Noem … wrote, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant.
She wrote that she took Cricket on a pheasant hunt with older dogs to calm the animal and help it learn how to behave. But on the hunt, Cricket went “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.”
Noem’s response was to take the puppy to a gravel pit and blow its brains out.
Here’s Clinton’s 2021 tweet:
That led to reaction from others on Twitter after the former secretary of state’s posting was once again making the rounds.
Alan Lichtman is a history professor at American University who has correctly predicted the winner of all but one presidential election since 1984, and he has some bad news for failed former president Donald Trump: You’re about to lose back-to-back bids for the White House.
According to The Guardian, Lichtman believes “a lot would have to go wrong” before November for President Joe Biden to not win a second term in office.
Here’s how Lichtman makes his determination of who will win: He uses 13 true or false questions. If six or more go against the White House party, it will lose. If fewer than six are against them, the party in power will win.
What are the 13 criteria?
1. Party mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the US House of Representatives than after the previous midterm elections.
2. Contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination.
3. Incumbency: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president.
4. Third party: There is no significant third party or independent campaign.
5. Short-term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign.
6. Long-term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms.
7. Policy change: The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy.
8. Social unrest: There is no sustained social unrest during the term.
9. Scandal: The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal.
10. Foreign/military failure: The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs.
11. Foreign/military success: The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs.
12. Incumbent charisma: The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero.
13. Challenger charisma: The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero.
Oh, and for those readers who think Lichtman is anti-Trump, he correctly predicted Donald would win in 2016 and then lose in 2020.
How did Lichtman correctly call the 2016 race for Trump when nearly every poll showed Hillary Clinton ahead?
Trump lost in 2020 due in large part to his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, Lichtman notes.
But perhaps most notable is that Lichtman discounts polling, suggesting it simply doesn’t consider enough factors and only succeeds in providing a snapshot of the overall horserace that’s rarely correct.
And what might happen if Trump is convicted of a crime?
So what are we to make of a poll released last week that shows Trump leading Biden by six points? Based on history and how wrong the polls have been and how right Professor Lichtman has outperformed them, it’s safe to say those numbers will be wrong yet again and Lichtman will add another feather to his cap.
According to Eric Trump, it’s almost impossible to buy “skin lotion” and other toiletries in New York due to crime, and it’s all the fault of President Joe Biden.
Eric made his patently absurd remarks during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures,” telling host Maria Bartiromo that his old man, disgraced ex-president Donald Trump, is “feeling great” despite being on trial in Manhattan for allegedly paying hush money and interfering with the 2016 election, which he won.
That’s when the former president’s son began attacking New York, which he said was “failing.”
The entire matter, he asserted, can be laid at Biden’s feet.
“The country does not believe it. But this guy’s not going to make it. He can’t.”
“He can’t get down a pair of stairs,” he said. “He can’t finish a sentence. He can’t read off a teleprompter without some kind of gaffe.”
Biden’s not going to make it? What about Eric’s pathetic father, who is falling asleep in court every five minutes and makes claims so wild that some have suggested he’s suffering from Alzheimer’s?
Nice projection, Eric, but no one believes anything your daddy or his spawn have to say. You’ve lied too damn much and the American people are sick of your bullshit.