Abortion Update, DDT’s Endorsements

As expected, the Democratic bill to preserve reproductive rights for women went down 51-49 in the Senate. The 50 Republicans were joined by West Virginia’s “Democrat” Joe Manchin. Nebraska’s Ben Sasse had the gall—or naivety or stupidity—to suggest that GOP could use the refusal of these rights for the chance to expand social safety nets for children and mothers. He obviously hasn’t been observing his own party—or his own votes. In another classic argument against the bill, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) compared women to sea turtles, saying women’s rights should be overturned because of the penalty in destroying sea turtle eggs. If the issue, killing women and losing rights, were not so serious, the responses would be hysterically funny. Like this tweet:

“IF WE COULD LAY EGGS OUTSIDE OUR BODY, WE WOULDN’T BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION YOU PIECE OF SHIT.”

Mike Frog explained:

“The human race is not endangered, only white Americans are and they know it. That’s what this is all about.”

There was no hope from the beginning because of the 60-percent mandate for passing and Senate legislation, but 49 Democrats tried. Even Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), usually siding with the Republicans, voted in favor of the bill, but the conservative big business giving her donations, including the pharmaceutical industry, supports women’s reproductive rights, knowing that they spend a lot of money.

Another Supreme Court leak, the fourth one about overturning Roe v. Wade, reports that conservative justices siding with Samuel Alito in removing women’s reproductive rights have switched their votes. Before Alito’s rough draft was leaked, the Wall Street Journal gave behind-the-scenes details about discussion regarding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that could lead to the elimination of Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) claim that he’s not a “moron” when he says the leak comes from someone on the left, but the two most recent links show conservatives are likely the sieve. An attorney close to several conservative justices said about Chief Justice John Roberts’ earlier decisions supporting the Affordable Care Act:

 “There is a price to be paid for what he did. Everybody remembers it.”

Despite the hue and cry about leaks being an assault on the court, the conservative justices are assaulting the people of the United States.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) pointed out that one of Roe’s opponents, Brett Kavanaugh, had not been properly vetted before the confirmation because the FBI was blocked from conducting a proper background after accusations of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is suffering from more “chalk attacks” written on the sidewalk in front of her home and has again called the Bangor police. The city has removed the writing with the notation of a complaint of “graffiti on public property.”

Election season is upon the U.S. for over six months, and endorsements by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has added to the heartburn suffered by Republicans. Yesterday, they dodged a bullet in Nebraska when serial Christian evangelist groper Charles Herbster missed a GOP primary win for governor. Despite multiple women from both parties witnessing and experiences Herbster’s unwanted advances, DDT, who also sexually assaulted women, told people to vote for him. DDT said, “He’s the most innocent human being … the last person to do any of this stuff.” Herbster, who had hired two DDT campaign leaders, Cory Lewandowski and David Bossie, conceded the election but told his audience to watch Rigged, Bossie’s movie with lies about DDT’s “stolen” election. The term-limited incumbent governor endorsed winner Jim Pillen, whose win probably puts another Republican into the governor’s mansion. The moderate conservative also lost.

All 13 state senators, including five Republicans, pushed back at Herbster’s denial of the “highly credible, corroborated allegations.” With no political experience, Herbster carried other baggage. He declared himself a fifth-generation Nebraska cattle rancher but dropped out of the 2014 governor’s race with allegations that the $18,000 house was not his residence. He owned a $435,000 house he owns in Kansas City (MO) and donated almost $9 million of his own money to his campaign, almost all of it gone.         

Even Kellyanne Conway, who worked for Herbster, knew about the allegations almost a year before the story broke, but she assumed the bipartisan group was just lying. The race was still fairly tight with Herbster picking up almost 80,000 votes at 30.2 percent of the GOP total number and Pillen getting 33 percent.

DDT also lost his favorite in Nebraska’s 2^nd Congressional district, Steve Kuehl, although he didn’t make an endorsement. At his May 1 rally, DDT denounced incumbent Don Bacon, saying, “I hope you vote like hell against that guy.” Bacon voted for the first infrastructure bill and defeated Kuehl by 44 points. Kuehl came in at 14,000 votes, 23 percent of the total. Incumbent Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen handily defeated his two opponents who pushed DDT’s message about “election security.

Nebraska voters also didn’t send Rep. Jeff Fortenberry back to Congress after he was convicted of lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions of $30,000. He had resigned after the conviction but stayed in the race. Despite his legal problems, Fortenberry got almost 10,000 votes at 12 percent of the total. At DDT’s May 1 rally, he defended Fortenberry, saying it was “very unfair” that Fortenberry might end up “in jail for a tiny amount of money.” The former congressman will be sentenced in June for three felonies.  

DDT did come up victorious in the West Virginia congressional race between two incumbents after the state lost one of its seats. Voters preferred the farther right one, Alex Mooney, despite his opponent, David McKinley, voting against massive funds for the state in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Mooney is being investigated for possible use of campaign funds for personal expenses. GOP Gov. Jim Justice supported McKinley. Republicans are hoping to take over the House. If they do, West Virginia should expect less federal money for their impoverished population, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of health care.

Tuesdays are busy. Here’s a calendar of 2022 primaries for all the 435 House members, 34 U.S. Senators, 36 governors, and thousands of state legislators. Five states are up next Tuesday, May 17.

Last week, DDT won his endorsement of J.D. Vance for the GOP U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio after the author of Hillbilly Elegy completely reversed his revulsion for DDT and campaigning on sinking to greater lows that DDT. Before DDT won in 2016, Vance wrote that DDT is either a “cynical asshole” or “America’s Hitler.” In October 2016, he called DDT “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and an “idiot.” Last summer, he told Molly Bang that to get the Republican vote he needed “to just suck it up and support” DDT.

Some Vance “winning” positions:

• “Fire every midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.   
• Close public schools and send children to churches and synagogues.
• “Separation of church and state is a myth.”
• “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”
• The 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from DDT.

Vance is backed by the Mercer family, who formerly funded DDT, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel as well as supported by planners of overturning the election, including Steve Bannon.  Fox’s Tucker Carlson also helped Vance’s campaign by telling DDT that the supporter of Vance’s opponent, Club for Growth President David McIntosh, has an embarrassing and “chronic” sexual habit and was at odds with DDT’s position on China and trade. The opponent’s sexual habits were also questioned. DDT picked Vance. It didn’t even matter than DDT couldn’t remember Vance’s initials—or his last name when he endorsed “JP Mandel” at a rally.

Vance’s desperation showed last week when he accused President Joe Biden of intentionally allowing deadly drugs such as fentanyl to come into the U.S. with Biden’s purpose to kill DDT’s supporters in the “heartland” of the country. Yet in Biden’s first year, he captured 50 percent more fentanyl than DDT did in his last year. Deaths from drug overdoses during DDT’s four years increased 45 percent. The rate under Biden is slower. As for targeting “MAGA voters,” overdose deaths increased most among people of color, primarily Black men, not DDT’s typical voter. The highest increase between 2019 and 2021 was also in teenagers age 14 to 18, youth too young to vote. Glenn Kessler, a tough judge, award Vance’s lie with four Pinocchios, the highest number possible. Vance had zero evidence for his false claims.

In 2018, DDT tweeted a wholehearted endorsement for Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) in his re-election campaign, writing he “has done a great job. He has my complete and total Endorsement!” Facing sexual misconduct claims, Reed has resigned. Last year, he said he considered running for New York governor but now has no election plans this year. Instead, he has joined a lobbying firm.

Outside the U.S., Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator whose family stole billions of dollars from the Philippines, is now the new president by a landslide. A revolution threw out his father. Jr. takes over from the brutal Rodrigo Duterte, whose daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, is the next vice president. One-fifth of the population is below the poverty line. Jr. plans to shield Duterte from any prosecution at the International Criminal Court. What else he plans is uncertain because Jr. avoided debates and interviews.  

Zuckerberg Faces Big Problems

Mark Zuckerberg has skated along since he was a teenager who used a website for a contest between female classmates and farm animals for desirability and then stole the invention of a social-networking site from other students. At the time, he said he discovered how “voyeuristic” people are and has used that cynicism to make over $120 billion with his Facebook empire.

Throughout his career, Zuckerberg has skirted scandals, but his callous indifference to helping the January 6 insurrection may be the tipping point. After two whistleblowers came forward with testimony and a treasure trove of damning internal documents, 18 news outlets formed the “Facebook Consortium” to report on those documents, called “The Facebook Papers.” The announcement led to Facebook warning staffers about upcoming “bad headlines.” An overview of the news outlets and their reporting.

Multiple articles have resulted in public revelations about Facebook activities:

Promoting the “Stop the Steal” movement lying about the election: FB removed “guardrails” used before the 2020 election to slow the spread of hate and misinformation after Joe Biden was elected president and replaced “only after the insurrection flared up,” according to whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony. Other FB employees maintain leadership decisions helped create conditions for the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol.

Facilitating human trafficking: FB has known it was responsible for advertising “domestic servitude” for at least three years but didn’t work to correct it until Apple threatened to drop FB and Instagram access to the App store. Yet FB has failed, offering women for physical and sexual abuse, deprived of food and pay, without travel documents for escape.

Stoking political violence: FB employees warned about the company’s failure to incite violence in “at risk” countries such as Ethiopia during its civil war when “problematic actors,” including states and foreign organizations, spread hate speech and discontent against ethnic minorities. FB estimates 72 percent of its 1.84 billion daily active users are outside North America and Europe. Haugen called Myanmar and Ethiopia “the opening chapter” in killing “a large number of people.” In 2018, the UN said FB had “turned into a beast” for promoting violence and hatred against Myanmar’s minority Rohingya population. FB’s permitted disinformation in India resulted in similar hate messages.

Another indictment of FB is Maria Ressa’s Nobel Prize for her independent news outlet, Rappler. She had tried—and failed—to convince Zuckerberg of his social responsibility as she told him about the problems he was causing in her native Philippines by Duterte’s dictatorship and his abuse of her and her reporters. When she told him that he was spreading disinformation to 97 percent of the people in the country, his only response was how to get the other three percent onto FB.

Supporting foreign elections: As FB CEO, Zuckerberg gave Vietnam’s Communist government almost complete control over postings before the country’s elections. Because they could, leaders crack down on dissidents’ free speech ahead. Zuckerberg said he was promoting free speech, but his motivation was the country’s threat to shut down his $1 billion market in Vietnam. 

Permitting QAnon to develop on FB: The company knew the extremists’ false beliefs reached users unchecked for over a year but even created sites from research to promote them.

Pushing people toward radicalizing content for business interest: A FB researcher invented accounts to promote and spread QAnon conspiracies to examine the use of recommendation systems to misinform and polarize users.  

Failing to block disinformation about the pandemic: Internal documents show studies of how damaging the lies about COVID were, but FB refused to remove the instigators except for a few direct complaints.

Allowing foreign troll farms to run top Christian pages: With the knowledge of FB, Eastern European organizations deliberately created conflict and manipulated opinion through coordinated offensive and provocative online posts on 19 of the top FB pages for U.S. Christians in 2019. They reached 75 million users a month, 20 times the next largest Christian FB page.

Fostering rage through algorithms: Using the reaction emoji to push more provocative content, FB weighted the “anger” response at five times more valuable than the ones for “like” or “love.” The method of growth is keeping people engaged, an easier response if they are upset. Researchers discovered that pushing these “controversial” posts could open “the door to more spam/abuse/clickbait inadvertently,” but FB didn’t stop the practice to use hatred and rage in shaping its readership for a much wider audience.

Growing FB at any cost to people: In a reflection of FB’s indifference, Andrew Bosworth, now chief technology officer at the company, sent a memo to employees in 2016 justifying growth at any human cost, connecting people whether they commit suicide, die in a terrorist attack, or suffer other disasters. To Bosworth—and FB—”questionable contact importing practices” and “subtle language that helps people stay searchable” are acceptable growth tactics.

Destroying the environment: This year, Oregon passed a law to regulate submarine cable projects because of FB’s destruction of part of the coastline. The company’s project suffered a massive drilling fluid leak and abandoned tons of abandoned equipment and two sumps while the state receives only $500,000 from the company. Another FB problem for communities is its high level of water for data centers. An internet search finds most articles cover how the company promises to develop water conservation methods in the future, but the reservoir for Prineville (OR), also home to Apple data centers, was at 21 percent of its capacity last summer. 

Zuckerberg denied the accusation in Max Chafkin’s newly published book The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power that he promised DDT he wouldn’t fact-check the campaigner’s political post in exchange for not being regulated, but his actions demonstrate a high level of support for DDT:

• A secret dinner between the two of them at the White House a week after Zuckerberg promised not to fact-check political ads.
• Removal of the fact-check of a “partly false” article about climate change published by right-wing news site, The Daily Wire, by top FB official.
• DDT’s posts calling for violence against Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters and his “Big Lie” about the “stolen” 2020 election.

A major complaint from conservatives is that social media favors liberal views, and noted conspiracy theorist Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) complained about his belief during a committee hearing on October 29. Mary Anne Franks, law professor at the University of Miami School of Law, explained the need for regulation of right-wing content because it isn’t covered by constitutional free speech in the case of social media:

“Yes, we do have a First Amendment. We do have a right to free speech but we also know, of course, that private companies are not obligated under the First Amendment to take all comers. They are allowed to make their own decisions about what is considered to be high-quality and low-quality content. They can make any number of decisions and I think we would applaud them in many cases to make those decisions…

“The data actually do indicate that right-wing content is more amplified on these social media platforms than left-wing content and that right-wing content is more disproportionately associated with real-world violence; not hurt feelings, people being upset but, in fact, actual violence, actual armed insurrections, actual notions of terrorism, and anarchy.”

Despite DDT’s complaints about not being allowed on social media, he has effectively skirted that ban as well as the law preventing him for using his current fundraising for another presidential campaign. His primary PAC, Save America, has weekly spend $100,000 in October on Facebook advertising, many of them using the lies about a stolen election for donor requests. The money funds his current political operation—travel, staff, rallies—before he announces a campaign. When he starts fresh with a new account, he can rent the updated donor list collected by the current PAC and transfer the funds to another outside group for his campaigning. By the end of July, his three principal fundraising operations had over $100 million; the next reporting deadline isn’t until January 1, 2022. The ads, news releases, and rallies are ways of lying to the U.S. public.

Avoiding any repair of FB’s toxicity, Zuckerberg plans to change the Facebook name to Meta although he still faces 2018 charges in the District of Columbia for permitting Cambridge Analytic to collect personal data about 87 million users, including over half D.C.’s residents. Although the term “meta” has a rather nebulous definition in current slang—not quite crystalized, as one source wrote—it has a number of other definitions that Zuckerberg might not like: concerned with cultural conventions, reference of oneself in an ironic way, behind or at the back, either of the conical columns at each end of a Roman circus, and, in chemistry, a compound formed by dehydration.       

His new concept is a “metaverse” moving people from reality into emersion of a fabricated dystopian science fiction inside the computer instead of being with actual people—an elaborate, permanent video game. Zuckerberg has faced much ridicule for his new name but now much more in the Jewish community: meta means “dead” in Hebrew.

DDT: Week Twenty-One, Any Success Elusive

Two years ago yesterday, a New York businessman rode down an escalator to become the president of the United States who is under investigation for criminal charges. Supporters didn’t believe an article about investigating Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) for obstruction of justice, but he angrily tweeted that he is being investigated. Much has been said about DDT invoking executive privilege, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Nixon from using the privilege to withhold evidence in a criminal investigation in 1974. The investigation is also looking into money laundering by DDT associates and the business affairs of DDT’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Russian hackers breached voting systems in 39 different states, according to a new report. This number is almost twice what was previously reported. Russians tried to delete or alter voter data, accessed software for poll worker use on Election Day, and breached a campaign finance database.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and NSA director Adm. Michael Rogers refused to talk about DDT’s involvement with Russia in  a hearing, but Coats told his colleagues in March that DDT asked both him and Rogers to stop former FBI director James Comey in a probe into Michael Flynn. DDT asked Coats in front of CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

DDT’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, has clients with Russian connections include Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin and Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank. Kasowitz also represented one of Deripaska’s companies for years in a civil lawsuit in New York and was scheduled to argue on the company’s behalf May 25, two days after news broke that Trump had hired him.

Jay Sekulow, with a specialty in “religious liberty” case, is now the television face of DDT’s legal team. Sekulow claims that the president is a “unitary executive” with unlimited national security powers. Former VP Dick Cheney expanded this theory when George W. Bush’s White House Counsel John Yoo justified using torture. The U.S. Constitution does not provide unchecked power for any of the three branches of government.

A Few DDT Failures:

A federal judge has ruled that DDT failed to conduct an adequate environmental review of the Dakota Access pipeline. Judge James Boasberg requested further briefings to see if the pipeline should be shut down until a full review of impacts of potential oil spills.

The Senate voted 97-to-2 to stop DDT’s power to unilaterally scale back sanctions on Russia.  Mike Lee and Rand Paul didn’t like the idea, and Secretary of State is not happy about tying “the administration’s hands.”

The ethics office refused a “retroactive” waiver to exempt white supremacist Steve Bannon for all of his infractions since he came to the White House. The “waiver” to nullify ethics claims was neither signed nor dated, raising the question of whether DDT knew anything about it.

The three-judge unanimous panel ruling against DDT’s travel ban in the 9^th Circuit Court decided that he didn’t comply with federal immigration law. DDT failed to offer justification to stop the entry of over 180 million people into the U.S. basing its ban on nationality. Judges cited DDT’s tweets as an “authority.” In a case about the ban before the 4^th Circuit Court, lawyers want judges to ignore DDT’s statements as president and rule only on the executive order and DDT’s official actions. If the Supreme Court hears the case, it will have to address both this questions and early constitutional issues from the 4^th Circuit ruling.

Comey might have been fired earlier if he had refused to meet with DDT. Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara  said he was fired the day after he refused a call from DDT because he saw direct contact between the president and a law-enforcement official. He reported the call to AG Jeff Sessions on March 9 and was fired “twenty-two hours later.”

Congress is putting the heat on DDT about releasing tapes of his conversations with Comey after DDT accused him of lying under oath.

DDT’s Attempts at Foreign Policy:

In the week since eight Middle East countries have blockaded Qatar, a country that DDT had supported only days before, the U.S. has crossed from one side to another. DDT called the country extremist, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for diplomacy, and the United States completed a sale of 36 fighter jets for $12 billion that President Obama had initiated. Iran, Kuwait, and Turkey have declared themselves on the side of Qatar, and the blockading countries have broken up families. U.S. incompetence can put either Russia or Turkey as broker in the Middle East crisis, and Turkey is already deploying troops to help Qatar

The Philippines military has confirmed that the U.S. will provide “technical support” to fight ISIS in that country, but President Rodrigo Duterte says he doesn’t want the help. If that’s true, it means that the military may have gone rogue, and the U.S. could be in the middle of the mess.

After dumping 194 countries by rejecting the Paris climate agreement, DDT made the United States into a footnote with the G7 group of industrialized nations. The other six reconfirmed a commitment to reducing carbon emissions in a statement after its environment meeting that EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt left early. “G6” countries are already meeting with California in a beginning to work with some states in slowing down climate change. A German fact check of DDT’s speech about saving $3 trillion shows he didn’t account for massive savings in fiscal benefits of avoiding massive climate changes.

DDT is afraid to go to Britain if there are large-scale protests. He told current prime minister Theresa May that he’ll wait until the British public supports a visit. UK will save lot of money in not having to break out the gold coach for him.

And a Few Other Pieces:

D.C. and Maryland are suing DDT because of the millions in payments he is receiving in his Washington hotel that violate the Emoluments Clause of the constitution. Government lawyers content that this prohibition doesn’t count for DDT. If a federal court decides whether the case can continue, the plaintiffs will request that DDT’s personal tax returns be publicly revealed. Another 196 congressional Democrats are suing DDT for the same reason.

DDT is blocking more people from his Twitter account, including VoteVets.org, a group representing over 500,000 veterans, family members, and civilian supporters. A record of his more notable blocks, including famous novelist Stephen King, is available here.

DDT’s climate quote of the week: “You’ve got one heck of an island there. Your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more.” The statement was made to Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge of Tangier (VA) on an island that has about 25 years left before sea-level rise from climate change puts it under the water. Of the 450 population in the town first settled in the 17^th century, about 87 percent voted for DDT in the place that is sinking 15 feet each year.

DDT’s wife Melania has reported that she officially moved into the White House with their son Barron.

Anyone watching comedy shows or news have seen clips of DDT’s Cabinet meeting where members and attendees were forced to suck up to the fragile DDT. Former CIA member Ned Price compared the fawning to what could be seen around North Korea’s Kim Jung-Un. Best headline: “Roomful of Pussies Purrs Its Praise At Feral Orange Tomcat.” Only Defense Secretary James Mattis didn’t play the game, instead praising the members of the military. Lesser noticed, however, is the parody that came from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Well worth watching! The article is also a detailed debunking of DDT’s claims. If you really want to read the comments ….

Being president makes a lot of money for DDT, and not just from his salary. His recent financial disclosure shows tens of millions of dollars in income from his “Trump” golf courses and resorts that get the biggest boosts from places he personally visits. One of these is Mar-a-Lago that doubled its 2016 incoe to $29 million. DDT visited at least one of his own properties in one-third of his first 108 days in office, 36 times. Details here.

Republican approval of how things are going in the U.S. dropped 17 points from 58 percent last month to 41 percent.

For the first time in his 22 weekends, DDT is not spending time at one of his golf courses or resorts. Instead, he has gone to the presidents’ retreat of Camp David. It may not be a common practice. DDT called Camp David “rustic” and said, “You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.” This facility does not require millions of dollars per visit like DDT’s time at his personal business places such as Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster (NJ). DDT should be okay: he’s only going overnight.