Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

"Senate Republicans who voted to advance aid for Ukraine last week are taking heavy incoming from allies of former President Trump, who are calling them out publicly and threatening primary challenges after they defied Trump’s calls to oppose the package."

"The security bill includes $60 billion in military and economic assistance for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, along with monies for the Indo-Pacific region and humanitarian purposes."

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4473646-trumpworld-takes-aim-at-republicans-who-supported-ukraine-aid-push/

As a consequence, Ukraine has incurred its first major defeat as it was forced to retreat from Avdiivka due to lack of ammunition:

“This morning, Ukraine’s military was forced to withdraw from Avdiivka after Ukrainian soldiers had to ration ammunition due to dwindling supplies as a result of congressional inaction, resulting in Russia’s first notable gains in months. President Biden emphasized the need for Congress to urgently pass the national security supplemental funding bill to resupply Ukrainian forces,”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/17/politics/biden-zelensky-congress-ukraine-aid/index.html


“We have to take seriously the extent to which you’ve now got a Putin-wing of the Republican Party. I believe the issue this election cycle is making sure that the Putin-wing of the Republican Party does not take over the West Wing of the White House,” Cheney told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/18/politics/liz-cheney-navalny-putin-gop-cnntv/index.html

I like the Rabbi's take on it:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/20/late-night-john-oliver-clarence-thomas-nn-hnk-vpx.cnn

Clarence's newest law clerk:

"U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has hired a law clerk who faced controversy in 2017 for allegedly sending racist text messages."

“I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like f‑‑‑ them all … I hate blacks. End of story,” Clanton wrote, according to The New Yorker."

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4490167-clarence-thomas-hires-clerk-accused-of-sending-racist-texts/

"Oliver railed against the conservative justice during the 11th season premiere of his weekly show Sunday, saying Thomas had made the lives of Americans “demonstrably worse” and promising him a brand new luxury recreational vehicle if he agrees to step down from the high court."

“Lot on your plate right now. From stripping away women’s rights to hearing Jan. 6 cases, you definitely shouldn’t be hearing two potentially helping rollback decades of federal regulations,” he said.

“So that’s the offer. $1 million a year, Clarence. And a brand new condo on wheels. And all you have to do in return is sign the contract and get the f‑‑‑ off the Supreme Court,”


https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4476865-john-oliver-clarence-thomas-1-million-dollars-supreme-court/

"Presidential historians in a new survey rank President Biden as the 14th best president in U.S. history — and put former President Trump last."

"The big picture: The tally came from 154 presidential specialists who are current and recent members of the American Political Science Association. They were asked to give every president a score, from 0 to 100."


https://www.axios.com/2024/02/19/presidents-survey-trump-ranks-last-biden-14th

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to revive a lawsuit from three House Republicans after their pay was docked for not complying with a pandemic-era mask requirement on the chamber floor."

In a brief order without any noted dissents, the court let stand a lower ruling that tossed the constitutional challenge filed by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.)."


"Greene racked up more than $100,000 in fines,"

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4478298-supreme-court-turns-away-house-gop-lawmakers-appeal-over-mask-rule-violations/

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to undo sanctions against several lawyers allied with former President Trump for filing a meritless lawsuit challenging Michigan’s 2020 presidential election results."

"Lawyers Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and others brought the lawsuit against Michigan state officials and Detroit in November 2020, one of dozens of suits filed in an attempt to prove election results were illegitimate in states where Trump had lost. The efforts failed across the board and no evidence of widespread fraud was uncovered."

"After dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, of the Eastern District of Michigan, ordered sanctions for the Trump-aligned lawyers, describing the lawsuit as a “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”


https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4478279-supreme-court-sanctions-pro-trump-2020-campaign-lawyers/

"Alabama’s Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are children under state law and subject to legislation dealing with the wrongful death of a minor, stating that it “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

"Alabama Supreme Court Justice Greg Cook issued a dissenting opinion."

"Cook argued in his opinion that it was not within the role of the court to “expand the reach of a statute and ‘breathe life’ into it by updating or amending it.” He argued the law that was written in 1872 would not have taken into account the status of frozen embryos and to argue that the law does would require an explicit amendment from the state Legislature."


https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4477607-alabama-supreme-court-rules-frozen-embryos-are-children/

So, you got one sane judge out of the bunch.

This crap reminds me of Clarence Thomas unilaterally deciding our current gun control laws are historically mandated by provisions on firearms existing in the 1700s...

“Kari Lake is trying to walk back her continued attacks on my Dad (& family) and all of his loyal supporters after telling them to ‘get the hell out,’” McCain said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter Tuesday."

“Guess she realized she can’t become a Senator without us,” McCain continued. “No peace, b—-. We see you for who you are – and are repulsed by it.”


"At a campaign event in 2022 while running for governor of the Grand Canyon State, Lake — a vocal supporter of former President Trump, who himself was regularly critical of John McCain — had asked, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out!”

The GOP, she added at the time, “was the party of McCain. It was bad. Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?”


https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4478970-meghan-mccain-kari-lake-john-mccain-arizona-senate/

If only those in the MAGA cult could see...

The so called iron clad witness hailed as the centerstone of credibility in the impeachment effort by the GOP has admitted the role of the Russian intelligence services in creating his narrative on the Bidens.

“The false information he provided was not trivial. It targeted the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties in the United States,” Weiss underscored. “The effects of Smirnov’s false statements and fabricated information continue to be felt to this day.”

In response:

"Fox News and the broader MAGA Media universe have declined to walk back their factually-challenged narrative."
"By refusing to fully acknowledge the false claims and press GOP lawmakers on their relentless promotion of it, Fox News is effectively giving GOP lawmakers permission to continue doing so."

"Tim Miller, the former Republican political operative turned author, MSNBC contributor, and Bulwark writer-at-large, predicted that Fox News will never retract their Burisma claims, telling me they “have a psychological and political need for it to be true.”

“The Smirnov indictment reveals that Republican leadership in the House is advancing literal Russian propaganda about the president,” Miller said. “This should be a massive triple red siren story and yet conservative media is unbowed and completely at peace with doing Putin’s dirty work. [It’s] astounding.”


https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/media/fox-news-bogus-fbi-informant-biden/index.html

I actually see a silver lining in this ultra conservative religious-based ruling as initiated by the chief justice of the Alabama supreme court.

We already suffer from overpopulation and the latest figures demonstrate a 48% increase in IVF treatments from just a few years ago. Now, that number can only go down, perhaps accompanied by an increase in adoptions. Additionally, red states may see the biggest impacts with less reproductions of similarly minded clones in the future. 

So, I do think there's a bright side to this with the cons limiting their reproductive numbers since this ruling bites them in their own asses along with the political consequences in an election year...