AE and Politics Today

nivek

As Above So Below

Internet roasts Kamala Harris for claiming she once asked 'Why are conservatives bad, mommy?'

Vice President Kamala Harris shared a childhood memory to bash conservatives Monday that made Twitter users cringe and suggest it was completely made up.

Harris has been widely criticized for her public speaking, ranging from repetitive word salads to personal anecdotes of dubious authenticity. Her participation in a moderated conversation on climate policy at Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Colorado gave the latest example.

"I grew up learning about – we called it ecology at the time and so some of us who were born around that time know what I’m saying – and we talked about it in the context of conservation," she said laughing. "In fact, I’m going to share with you a very simple story, which is that I went home one day and I said, 'Well, why are conservatives bad, mommy?’ I thought we were supposed to conserve things." She added, "I couldn’t reconcile it. Now I can."

A clip of the quote went viral across Twitter, and users shredded her story from multiple angles.

"Her comms team would be wise to keep her far, far away from a camera and a microphone. Forever," 2022 New Hampshire congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt wrote.

Many Twitter users appeared to suggest the story was a complete fabrication.

"This never happened," "The Dana Show" host Dana Loesch wrote.

"I can't tell if she laughs because she believes the content is funny or because she knows there are a few suckers dumb enough to believe this actually happened," writer Virginia Kruta tweeted.

"I'll take, 'Things that never happened for $1,000,'" special adviser for communications for Sen. Ted Cruz, Steve Guest tweeted.


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View: https://twitter.com/WGYMornings/status/1632893678443278336


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nivek

As Above So Below

New York Magazine art critic tells Instagram followers to 'shun' family and friends who vote for Republicans

Pulitzer Prize winning art critic for New York magazine Jerry Saltz advised his social media followers to absolutely 'shun' anyone in their lives who had voted for Republican political candidates. To his 603,000 Instagram followers on Sunday, Saltz wrote: 'If you know anyone who voted Republicans - including friends and family - you should shun them. No need to even tell them that you are no longer communicating with them or why.'

New York Magazine art critic tells followers to 'shun' family and friends who vote for

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wwkirk

Divine

New York Magazine art critic tells Instagram followers to 'shun' family and friends who vote for Republicans

Pulitzer Prize winning art critic for New York magazine Jerry Saltz advised his social media followers to absolutely 'shun' anyone in their lives who had voted for Republican political candidates. To his 603,000 Instagram followers on Sunday, Saltz wrote: 'If you know anyone who voted Republicans - including friends and family - you should shun them. No need to even tell them that you are no longer communicating with them or why.'

New York Magazine art critic tells followers to 'shun' family and friends who vote for'shun' family and friends who vote for

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Not a deep response by me, but didn't it used to be the case that most people kept whom they voted for private, even secret? That's what the whole secret ballot thing is all about, isn't it?

True story: Once upon a time I was a member of a small community board. There were serious financial difficulties and we had to vote on whether to cut (eliminate) the salary of the chairman. Up until that time we had never employed secret ballots. But I argued on the spot that we had to employ it at that time given that the chairman was sitting right there among us. The secret ballot was agreed upon and his salary was eliminated. He was super pissed when this happened. - I am positive that the vote would have turned out differently if a secret ballot had not been utilized.
 

AD1184

Celestial
Not a deep response by me, but didn't it used to be the case that most people kept whom they voted for private, even secret? That's what the whole secret ballot thing is all about, isn't it?

True story: Once upon a time I was a member of a small community board. There were serious financial difficulties and we had to vote on whether to cut (eliminate) the salary of the chairman. Up until that time we had never employed secret ballots. But I argued on the spot that we had to employ it at that time given that the chairman was sitting right there among us. The secret ballot was agreed upon and his salary was eliminated. He was super pissed when this happened. - I am positive that the vote would have turned out differently if a secret ballot had not been utilized.
One of the things that Thatcher did during her time in power in Britain was to force unions by law to hold a secret ballot of their members prior to any strike action. In the recent history of that era, Britain was facing great economic disruption by unions repeatedly striking across multiple sectors. Once the secret ballot was introduced, the frequency of strikes dropped enormously. This was because most union members did not typically wish to strike whenever their leadership called for one, but the members were made to comply with their wishes by intimidation thanks to the open balloting that used to take place.
 

nivek

As Above So Below

Nine boxes of Biden documents were taken from Boston office

The archives had not previously publicly disclosed the number of boxes taken from Boston.

Nine boxes of documents were taken from President Biden's attorney Patrick Moore's Boston office, but have yet to be reviewed, the National Archives disclosed in a response letter to Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, this week first obtained by Fox News Digital.

The Archives had not previously publicly disclosed the number of boxes taken from Boston. It had been reported that Moore had shipped boxes of documents from the Penn Biden Center to his Boston office before discovering the initial trove of classified documents at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

In response to questions by Johnson and Grassley in a Feb. 24 letter asking how and when the archives learned that records were transported to Boston, Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall responded the agency learned about it on Nov. 3, 2022.

"When NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] contacted President Biden’s personal counsel on November 3, 2022, to arrange to pick up boxes from the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., they informed NARA that Mr. Moore had moved other boxes from the Penn Biden Center to Mr. Moore’s law firm in Boston," the letter states.

In addition, the archives notified the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General on Nov. 4 that the documents had been moved. The documents were then picked up on Nov. 9 and were secured in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

"NARA staff retrieved nine boxes from Mr. Moore’s Boston office," Wall continued, which had not been previously known.


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nivek

As Above So Below

QAnon Shaman's mom torches feds after new video shows convict 'escorted' around Capitol

The mother of the "QAnon Shaman" arrested in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot proclaimed her son's innocence after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., shared videotape with "Tucker Carlson Tonight" from that day – some of which shows Jacob Chansley walking through the Capitol unimpeded by law enforcement.

"What has it been like – that is an awful thing to say, it is horrible," Martha Chansley told "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

When asked how she feels to know the United States government and President Biden's administration "hid evidence" that may be considered exculpatory in his case, wherein he was charged with several crimes including civil disorder, obstruction of a proceeding, violent entry, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, Chansley said it is very "upsetting."

"It should have come out two years ago. That [video] should have come out two years ago. He's he's an innocent man. Everything that [Jacob] said that he did is true -- That he walked through open doors. He was escorted through the halls of the Senate."

Jacob Chansley, who famously went shirtless and donned face paint and a horned hat while carrying an American flag on the day Congress certified President Biden's election victory, was portrayed as the leader of pro-Trump rioters who violently attacked Capitol Police officers and defaced the Capitol Building.

Chansley said her son was peaceably escorted by law enforcement in part because he had offered to help them after witnessing others inside the building.

Jacob Chansley was ultimately sentenced to 41 months, or about 3 and a half years, in prison, according to documents from the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney's office.

The Chansleys' new attorney, William Shipley, criticized former counsel Albert Watkins – who appeared with Carlson earlier this week-- saying that the defendant did not have a lot of post-conviction options.

"The plea agreement that Albert Watkins talked him into signing waived all of his appeal rights. So he had no opportunity to go to the [District of Columbia] Circuit Court of Appeals to raise any issues connected to his conviction," Shipley said.

"It was an unconscionable plea agreement. I've done this for 35 years. I recognized it immediately what Watkins had done wrong. Watkins had to plead guilty before the government was even willing to say it had produced all the video. The government in August of 2021 was still telling judges, 'We haven't been able to get all of the evidence to the defense lawyers, so please don't set a trial date'."

Watkins had called Jacob Chansley's prison sentence a "tragedy" and a "dagger at the heart of our American justice system."


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nivek

As Above So Below
A bit long but on point...

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Welcome to the United States of Bigots where we're apparently all racists, sexists, homophobes and transphobes - and our woke White House is perpetually offended by us. Shame they can't do the jobs we actually pay them for

The supposed bigot of the hour is none other than Washington DC Boy Scout Mike Pence.

He's under fire for this quip about Pete Buttigieg's possible presidential run: 'When Pete's two children were born, he took two months maternity leave, whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, airplanes nearly collided in midair. I mean, Pete Buttigieg is the only person in human history to have a child and all the rest of us get postpartum depression.'

Funny. True. But Mr. Vice President — you forgot to mention the nation's crippling supply chain crisis.

If there's one major misstep here, it's using 'maternity' instead of 'paternity' leave. But you could easily chalk that up to a generational divide (Pence is 63 to Buttigieg's 41).

Could it be that Pence misspoke? Nope. It's immediately DEFCON 1 over at the White House. Full nuclear outrage.

'The former vice president's homophobic joke about Secretary Buttigieg was offensive and inappropriate,' said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, 'all the more so because he treated women suffering from postpartum depression as a punchline.'

Please. Stop it.

No one thinks Mike Pence is making fun of postpartum women.

And he delivered these remarks at a roast, no less!

The Vice President was speaking at the Gridiron Club dinner, one the oldest and most prestigious gatherings of U.S. journalists. Roasts, by definition, are meant to shock. People are supposed to speak the unspeakable. That joke was fairly gentle.

And by the way — just because a joke is clumsy doesn't mean there isn't truth to it.

What's truly offensive is an administration that props up this do-nothing.

As Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg is an unmitigated disaster. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana has zero qualifications and acts as though this job is beneath him, boring, a mere placeholder till he can run again for president — another job far above his skill set.

Buttigieg's delayed response to the toxic Ohio train derailment — setting his designer-boot-clad feet on the ground nearly three weeks after residents complained of pungent fumes, contaminated water and air, dead animals and sudden health issues — would have been the death knell for anyone else with his track record.

As would his defensive response to showing up the day after former President Trump. To CNN: 'It's really rich to see some of these folks . . . who wouldn't know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country.'

Talk about a joke. Do we really think Mayor Pete shops discount?

This is a Transportation Secretary who flies private. Who tells Americans squeezed at the gas pump to just buy electric cars. A Harvard educated former McKinsey consultant who raked in an estimated $800,000 to $1.2 million over the past two years in book and podcast deals. Whose husband griped that they 'couldn't afford the one-bedroom-plus-den' D.C. apartment they wanted.

Speaking of Pete's husband Chasten, he tweeted a picture of Pete sitting by their child's crib in the hospital, writing: 'An honest question for you, @Mike_Pence, after your attempted joke this weekend. If your grandchild was born prematurely and placed on a ventilator at two months old — their tiny fingers wrapped around yours as the monitors beep in the background — where would you be?'

Oh, the melodrama. No one's saying Pete shouldn't have been with their baby. They're saying if you can't do the job, collecting a six-figure salary paid by us taxpayers, get out. But rather than address a lazy, loafing, unqualified transportation secretary — a liability — who would sooner address 'racist' highways than post-pandemic shipping and airline and supply-chain disasters (baby formula shortage, anyone?), the White House throws a fit.

The Dems, increasingly humorless, pious and on eternal watch for micro-aggressions, can't resist an opportunity to accuse conservatives of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia . . . on and on it goes.

Lest we forget Biden on then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008: 'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.'

That comment? Bygones.

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Pence 'should apologize to women and LGBTQ people, who are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.' Talk about an overreaction. It's especially rich coming from one of the worst White House press secretaries in recent memory.

Jean-Pierre's complete ineptitude brings to mind another unqualified hire: Kamala Harris.

Don't take my word for it — here's Biden on the campaign trail: 'If I'm elected President . . . I commit that I will in fact pick a woman to be Vice President.' Then the Democratic party made sure he picked the correct female. 'He better pick a black woman,' said the chair of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus, Virgie Rollins, in 2020.

Top Democrats have been agonizing over Kamala's poor performance from the beginning. She is uninformed, unprepared, unaccomplished, runs a chaotic office with high staff turnover, and has a propensity to laugh at the most inappropriate times. Her poll numbers are in the toilet, with 49.5 percent of voters down on her record, according to Five Thirty Eight. CNN reports that Hollywood is agitating for someone else on the ticket.

Even Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is hesitant to get behind Kamala running again for vice president on the 2024 ticket.

And Liz got in big trouble with the ladies on The View for that, because — you guessed it — she's apparently empowering racists. Elizabeth Warren, whose leftist credentials are otherwise impeccable.

Ana Navarro: 'Stop playing into the hands of these who cannot stand that she is the first woman, woman of color vice president, and don't want her to succeed.'

Alyssa Farah Griffin disagreed. 'I think there's some concern about just the lack of policy accomplishments that she's made as vice president.'

In came the insufferable, self-righteous Sunny Hostin, speaking in that overly-calm, sing-song-y cadence that barely disguises her contempt: 'I'm surprised that there's concern,' she said. 'I think it has a lot to do with, she's a black woman.'

Oh lord, give it a rest! Not everything is racist. Some jokes are just jokes.

And some people are just terrible at their jobs.


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nivek

As Above So Below

We do NOT have operational control of the border, chief admits: Top official makes startling claim at hearing - after Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas said the opposite - and throws support behind wrongly-accused 'whipping' agents

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz directly contradicted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday by telling Congress that the federal government does not have operational control of the border.

Mayorkas, who Republicans want to impeach, has repeatedly said that the administration has control at the southern border, despite a two-year crisis with record-breaking numbers of illegal crossings every month since President Joe Biden took office.

The testimony from Ortiz before the House Homeland Security panel comes just days after a group of at least 1,000 migrants attempted to rush the El Paso, Texas port of entry directly across from Juarez, Mexico.

Ortiz also took responsibility for the September 2021 controversy surrounding images of horseback border agents using whips to corral migrants at the border – and reiterated the importance of the horseback unit.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green pointedly asked Ortiz during a hearing Wednesday: 'Does DHS have operational control of our entire border?'

'No, sir,' Ortiz replied.

Operation Control is the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States at any border, according to the Secure Fence Act of 2007.

Republicans claim that the southern border crisis is by design, claiming that Biden, Mayorkas and the Democrats do not want to enforce immigration laws and want to nix the idea that the U.S. has secure borders.

During his opening statement, Ortiz backed the agents who were falsely accused by Democrats, including President Biden, of whipping Haitian migrants during an encounter at the border in 2021.

'As a former horse patrol agent, I can attest to how vital horse patrol units are in responding to remote and harsh locations. Last year's mass migration event in Del Rio was chaotic. We have over 20,000 people show up in one place in a short period of time,' Ortiz recollected.

'I remain proud of the work of our horse patrol units and what we did in Del Rio,' he added.

'As the chief of the border patrol, I am ultimately responsible for all operational decisions,' Ortiz said. 'To that point, and as a senior field commander during that response, I accepted and continue to accept full responsibility for the actions taken.'


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wwkirk

Divine

We do NOT have operational control of the border, chief admits: Top official makes startling claim at hearing - after Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas said the opposite - and throws support behind wrongly-accused 'whipping' agents

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz directly contradicted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday by telling Congress that the federal government does not have operational control of the border.

Mayorkas, who Republicans want to impeach, has repeatedly said that the administration has control at the southern border, despite a two-year crisis with record-breaking numbers of illegal crossings every month since President Joe Biden took office.

The testimony from Ortiz before the House Homeland Security panel comes just days after a group of at least 1,000 migrants attempted to rush the El Paso, Texas port of entry directly across from Juarez, Mexico.

Ortiz also took responsibility for the September 2021 controversy surrounding images of horseback border agents using whips to corral migrants at the border – and reiterated the importance of the horseback unit.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green pointedly asked Ortiz during a hearing Wednesday: 'Does DHS have operational control of our entire border?'

'No, sir,' Ortiz replied.

Operation Control is the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States at any border, according to the Secure Fence Act of 2007.

Republicans claim that the southern border crisis is by design, claiming that Biden, Mayorkas and the Democrats do not want to enforce immigration laws and want to nix the idea that the U.S. has secure borders.

During his opening statement, Ortiz backed the agents who were falsely accused by Democrats, including President Biden, of whipping Haitian migrants during an encounter at the border in 2021.

'As a former horse patrol agent, I can attest to how vital horse patrol units are in responding to remote and harsh locations. Last year's mass migration event in Del Rio was chaotic. We have over 20,000 people show up in one place in a short period of time,' Ortiz recollected.

'I remain proud of the work of our horse patrol units and what we did in Del Rio,' he added.

'As the chief of the border patrol, I am ultimately responsible for all operational decisions,' Ortiz said. 'To that point, and as a senior field commander during that response, I accepted and continue to accept full responsibility for the actions taken.'


(More on the link)

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Meh. he somewhat supported the agents, but did not directly refute the whipping allegations. Not enough.

Also, Just checked with Snopes. Can't find an article offering a definitive verdict on whether the agents had employed whips. Explicit verdicts was their trademark thing. Instead there is just an article about the misinterpreted photo.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
She is a clueless, doesn't even take her job seriously...

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Kamala says DeSantis doesn't 'understand' Ukraine war - and laughs when she admits her office IS like VEEP: Harris dodges question on what her 'actual role' is in wide-ranging Stephen Colbert interview

Kamala Harris said that Ron DeSantis doesn't understand the complexity of the war in Ukraine and its impact on U.S. sovereignty in a late-night interview where she was caught off-guard when asked to detail the true role of the vice president.

President Joe Biden's No. 2 laughed it off when The Late Show host Stephen Colbert asked her if being vice president was like an episode of Veep, to which Harris grinned and said parts of the sitcom are 'actually quite accurate.'

Her attack on DeSantis during the show Wednesday evening came after the Florida governor called the war in Ukraine a 'territorial dispute' and joined others who bashed Biden for sending billions in aid.

Harris, who Biden says has every intention of being on his ticket if he runs for reelection in 2024, is visiting Iowa on Thursday for her first trip to the early primary contest state since taking office.


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Rick Hunter

Celestial
Ugh, the Kentucky General Assembly is sticking it's nose where it doesn't belong. I'm Republican and proud of it, but this thinly veiled anti-trans bill is just hot garbage. There are a lot of things politicians just need to stay the hell out of, liberal or conservative. This bullshit is probably going to make me vote for our incumbent Democratic governor.

 

nivek

As Above So Below
Ugh, the Kentucky General Assembly is sticking it's nose where it doesn't belong. I'm Republican and proud of it, but this thinly veiled anti-trans bill is just hot garbage. There are a lot of things politicians just need to stay the hell out of, liberal or conservative. This bullshit is probably going to make me vote for our incumbent Democratic governor.


There's a reason for that and that's because they're trying to circumvent the parents wishes and doing these procedures on minors without parent approval and there should be laws to outlaw such practices...

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