Republicans, Protests

It’s a Wednesday so Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) isn’t trapped in court as he incessantly complains. Instead of campaigning, however, he’s hosting a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, trying to sell his NFT trading cards and holding other private political meetings. In contrast, President Joe Biden is in Racine (WI) talking about a new Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant at the same location where DDT had attended a groundbreaking in 2018 for Foxconn’s $10 billion factory making LCD panels.

Gov. Scott Walker gave the electronics manufacturer millions in subsidies and bulldozed homes and farms, but the facility never came to fruition although taxpayers gave Foxconn $683 million. The area lost 1,000 jobs. As Biden said about DDT:

“He promised a $10 billion investment by Foxconn. He came with your senator, Ron Johnson, with a golden shovel and didn’t build a damn thing. They dug a hole with those golden shovels and then they fell into it.”

Microsoft receives no government incentives for the $3.3 billion dollar datacenter and works with Gateway Technical College, annually training and certifying 200 students for jobs in data and information technology. In addition, Microsoft will work with nearby high schools to train students for future jobs.

DDT also appealed his limited gag order in the New York criminal business fraud. His defense team asked for either a ruling from an intermediate appeals court or immediate permission to appeal to the New York’s Court of Appeals which already rejected pausing the trial during the fight against the gag order. The lawyer’s appeal may be DDT’s latest attempt to stay out of jail. 

Another DDT Truth Social tirade after Stormy Daniels’ testimony, possibly violating the gag order, slammed not only judges but also “sleazebags” and “lowlifes” who “say absolutely anything that they want,” likely meaning witnesses. He posted that he has to “listen to lies and false statements” made against him but can’t respond and called Judge Juan Merchan “corrupt and highly conflicted.” Both the gag order and Merchan’s caution on Tuesday warned DDT about witness intimidation.

Despite two meetings with Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and urging by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed her motion to oust Johnson from the position. She lost overwhelmingly: the bipartisan vote to table the motion was 359 to 43 with seven Democrats voting “present.” Only 32 Democrats voted against blocking Greene’s motion along with 11 Republicans. Only Reps. Thom Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) had openly said they will support Greene.

Lawmakers widely booed and jeered Greene as she read the resolution for over ten minutes, reciting grievances such as allowing Democrats to pass the federal funding bill to keep the government open, reauthorization of the U.S. warrantless surveillance, and the inclusion of Ukrainian aid in a foreign national security package. After the vote, Republicans lined up on the House floor to shake Johnson’s hand and pat him on the back. Greene’s GOP colleagues had warned Johnson that kowtowing to her would put him in danger. Johnson has been Speaker for a little over six months, and Greene prepared her motion to vacate six weeks ago.

On Steve Bannon’s podcast, Greene said:

“We need to act like Republicans. We need to demand control and we need to stop the government from being used for politics.”

Republicans voting with Greene against tabling the motion were Warren Davidson (OH), Alex Mooney (WV), Barry Moore (AL), Victoria Spartz (IN), Chip Roy (TX, Paul Gosar (AZ) Eli Crane (AZ), Eric Burlison (MO), Thom Massie (KY), and Andy Biggs (AZ). Born in Ukraine, Spartz also voted against aid for her birth country.

Republicans, who don’t want to use the government for politics, plan to hold AG Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for allegedly impeding their Biden impeachment inquiry because he won’t give them an audio recording of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview of Biden—only the transcript. They want information about discussions of Ukraine documents which is not in the transcripts.

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also making news with his announcement that he had a parasitic worm that ate part of his brain before it died and both short- and long-term memory loss causing “cognitive” problems. The parasite can cause neurologic symptoms including headaches, convulsions, epileptic seizures, and even death. He was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning what can cause speech and hearing impairment, muscle weakness, lack of coordination, and other symptoms. The 70-year-old has boasted about being a healthier, younger alternative to Biden and DDT, and his spokeswoman stated he had resolved these issue over 10 years ago. 

Previously, Kennedy explained his strained, sometimes hoarse voice is caused by spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary spasms in the muscles of the voice box, and he became infected with hepatitis C from intravenous drug use in his youth. It was treated. In 2001, Kennedy was hospitalized for atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat caused by a common heart abnormality that can cause strokes, and said in 2012 he was hospitalized three more times for that condition.

Kennedy used Russian propaganda in his four-minute history about its invasion of Ukraine, according to conservative factchecker Glenn Kessler. The presidential candidate’s “history lesson” stated that Russia was “invaded three times through Ukraine,” the reason Vladimir Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to join NATO. The last time by Hitler would have been 80 years ago. Kessler said the Russian attack before that one was in 1812 by French Emperor Napoleon Bonapart, but he didn’t go through Ukraine.

The ”history” cited a non-existent conversation between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush in which the U.S. promised that it “will not move NATO one inch toe the east.” Three former Soviet republics—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—are NATO countries. NATO was created in 1949. Among the false statements in his lecture, Kennedy got the number of countries in NATO correct.

Like DDT, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) finds candidate Kennedy a threat to his reelection if Kennedy is on the Texas ballot. Kennedy supporters prefer Democrat Colin Allred to Cruz by a significant margin. Needing almost 141,000 signature to run, the independent candidate has collected over 200,000, although they aren’t yet verified. The deadline is Monday.

Gay Kevin Spacey, allegedly committing multiple sexually attacking men, endorsed Kennedy for president because he opposes vaccines. The anti-LGBTQ+ candidate repeatedly stated that human-made chemicals in the environment, “endocrine disrupters,” may cause children to be gay or transgender, feminize boys, and masculinize girls. In contrast, Marjorie Taylor Greene believes Kennedy isn’t sufficiently transphobic to be present because he was uncertain about whether gender-affirming medical care, supported by the American Medical Association (AMA), should be available to trans minors.

Louisiana is appealing the three-judge panel’s blocking the state’s latest congressional maps that found the state shouldn’t draw district lines complying with the Voting Rights Act to create a second minority opportunity district. The panel had given June 3 as the deadline for passing an interim remedial map. If the state Legislature doesn’t pass a new map by then, the judges will impose one themselves.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, according to Isaac Newton’s third law of motion. The response to college campus protests against the Israel genocide in Gaza is an example of his premise. Students, mostly peaceful before law enforcement arrives, fight back when college administrations send in law enforcement who beat up the protesters. Some schools, however, talk to students and reach agreements. Usually, students request an end to the Israeli war, disclosures of institutional investments, and divestment from companies tied to Israel or otherwise profit from its military operation in Gaza. In some places, agreements lead to nonviolent dismantling of encampments before graduation. Brown and Northwestern were the first, followed by Rutgers, Johns Hopkins, University of Minnesota, and the University of California, Riverside. Northwestern agrees to peaceful demonstration but no tents through the end of classes on June 1. In return, students can be represented on investment comments, and the school will bring Palestinian students to campus. Although not completely satisfied, students at these schools celebrate the agreements as incremental steps. Other schools such as Wesleyan University look to these schools as models. The journey to the bargaining table at four schools is here.

Over 750 Jewish students at U.S. universities have signed an open letter urging institutions to take action in stopping Israel’s “genocidal assault on Gaza.” The letter states they are “deeply disturbed by the small number of individuals who have attempted to co-opt these encampments to spread violent, hateful, and antisemitic messages” but “wholeheartedly reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety.” The students responded to Biden’s speech about antisemitism on campuses. Last week, Biden faced backlash for falsely characterizing the campus encampments as lawless and violent while ignoring police brutality and physical attacks against protesters, including a mob assault at the University of California, Los Angeles. More of the letter’s contents is here. It concludes  :

“We demand that academic and political leaders stop misrepresenting and demonizing protests and their organizers, protect the voices of student activists, and take immediate action to stop Israel’s genocidal acts before more Palestinians are killed.”

In 2022, the year that Russia invaded Ukraine, oil company BP’s profit of $27.7 billion, double the previous year.