U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

All time record-low black unemployment in March, under President Biden's and Vice President Harris' leadership.

The Black unemployment rate fell to 5% in March, an all-time low.

[Rick Plant]

When President Biden took office, the unemployment rate was 6.3%.

Now, it’s just 3.5%.

President Biden is investing in America, creating good-paying jobs, and building an economy that works for all Americans.

"This is a good jobs report for hard-working Americans," says President Biden in a statement.

[Rick Plant]

NEW JOBS REPORT:

The American economy has added 12.6 million jobs since President Biden took office, and the unemployment rate has dropped to 3.5%, a near a 50-year low.

THE STRONGEST JOBS COMEBACK IN HISTORY.

These BLS documented government statistics proves you can't trust Republicans with jobs and the economy. Their failures on jobs and the economy dates going back to George Bush in 1989 has been well documented. This speaks for itself.

 

[Rick Plant]

Lauren Boebert accused of 'coverup' after son's car accident



Noble D'Amato, a 19-year-old friend of Rep. Lauren Boebert's son Tyler, has accused the Republican congresswoman of covering up details of a vehicle crash that left him injured.

D'Amato told Denver news site Westword that he was riding shotgun with Boebert's son on September 17 when Tyler flipped the SUV he was driving. D'Amato suffered "multiple concussions and a severely lacerated hand."

"I still have problems with my hand," D'Amato told the site. "My thumb almost got cut off. It prevented me from getting a welding job, because I can't hold a TIG torch anymore. I'm a personal-care provider now."

Following the crash, D'Amato said he was charged with drug offenses after police found unprescribed Xanax pills and a marijuana grinder at the scene of the accident.

Boebert's son was issued a careless driving ticket, which was later reduced to "defective vehicle for headlights," the Garfield County Court Clerk's Office told Westword. Tyler was ordered to attend an "Alive at 25" driver's awareness program.

Westword said Boebert's office issued an April 4 statement in which it said, "The injury reported was superficial at best and was addressed by medical professionals out of caution."

D'Amato called the statement "bull----."

"She's never liked me," he remarked. "But that doesn't give them the right to try and hide the fact that I was injured."

D'Amato accused Boebert of trying to cover up his injuries, and referred to allegations that she had tried to hide an accident in 2019.

"They've tried covering up stuff before," referring to the claims.

As for the crash itself, D'Amato said Boebert's son was "stone cold sober" but "was driving so f--king fast."

"I remember waking up with blood pouring out of my hand," he recalled. "I had put my hands up in the air to protect myself and got messed up really bad by the window or something. I was just glad to be alive."

D'Amato explained that he had drifted apart from Boebert's son following the accident.

"Just because he's Lauren Boebert's kid doesn't mean he's a god," he observed.

D'Amato said he was thankful to be alive and off drugs.

"It was an accident," he remarked. "But the fact that they're downplaying it like this is something else. Superficial injuries? I got multiple concussions. My thumb was almost cut off. I couldn't hold a torch. It prevented me from getting a welding job."

"So, yeah, harm was definitely done. But like I said, if it were up to [Tyler] fully — and he didn't have his mom affecting his mind so aggressively — he'd take responsibility and not act like it wasn't a big deal. But he's the son of Lauren Boebert. If I did what he did, I'd still be in jail."

https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-car-crash/

[Rick Plant]

Expelled Tennessee lawmakers both seeking seats again



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Two former Black Democratic lawmakers who were expelled by Republican colleagues in Tennessee say they want to be reappointed, then elected back to their seats, following their ouster for a protest on the House floor urging passage of gun-control measures in the wake of a deadly school shooting.

Nashville’s metro council is likely to reappoint Justin Jones to the seat during a specially called Monday meeting. Mickell Lowery, the chairman of the Shelby County Commission, said in a statement Sunday that the panel will consider at a meeting Wednesday whether to reappoint Justin Pearson, who is from Memphis, to his seat.

Lowery said he understands the need to respond to those who “transgressed the rules” of the state House of Representatives.

“However, I believe the expulsion of State Representative Justin Pearson was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods. I also believe that the ramifications for our great State are still yet to be seen,” he said.

Both former lawmakers told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that they want to return to their positions as lawmakers. Special elections for the seats, which have yet to be set, will follow in the coming months.

The expulsions have made Tennessee a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. The former lawmakers have quickly drawn prominent supporters. President Joe Biden spoke with them and Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Nashville.

“You know, we will continue to fight for our constituents,” Jones said. “And one thing I just want to say ... is that this attack against us is hurting all people in our state. You know, even though it is disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities, this is hurting poor white people. Their attack on democracy hurts all of us.”

In separate votes on Thursday, the GOP supermajority expelled Jones and Pearson, a move leaving about 140,000 voters in primarily Black districts in Nashville and Memphis with no representation in the House.

Pearson and Jones were expelled in retaliation for their role in the protest the week before, which unfolded in the aftermath of a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people, including three young students and three adults working at the school. The shooter was killed by police.

A third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, was spared expulsion by a one-vote margin. Johnson is white, spurring outcry at the differing outcomes for the two young, Black lawmakers. Republican lawmakers who split their votes have cited Johnson’s points on the floor that her role in the protest was lesser — she didn’t speak into the megaphone, for example.

Johnson has also suggested race was likely a factor on why Jones and Pearson were ousted but not her, telling reporters it “might have to do with the color of our skin.”

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said that’s a “false narrative.”

“It’s unfortunate, she’s trying to put political racism in this, which there was nothing on this,” Sexton told Fox News on Friday.

GOP leaders said the expulsion actions — used only a handful times since the Civil War — were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings through protest would be tolerated.

Pearson said the statehouse has been a “toxic work environment.” He noted the scrutiny he received for wearing a black dashiki — a tunic-like garment that originated in west Africa — for session, rather than a suit and tie.

“It’s about us not belonging in the institution because they are afraid of the changes that are happening in our society, and the voices that are being elevated,” Pearson said on Meet the Press.

https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-expulsion-democracy-election-nashville-b6fba07308b9907450a8152b7a8ee1f0



Rep. Justin Jones expulsion updates: Council reappoints, Jones retakes oath of office



Days after Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, was expelled from the Tennessee House for leading a gun-control protest from the floor following a deadly shooting at Covenant School, the Metro Nashville Council reappointed him to the seat.

Last week, the House expelled Jones in a 72-25 vote, and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, in a 69-26 decision — moves that put the nation's eyes on Tennessee and its politics. Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, survived a similar vote.

During a special called meeting Monday, the Council unanimously voted to reappoint Jones to the seat. Three members were not present for the vote.

Immediately after the vote, Jones, and hundreds of protesters, marched to the Capitol where he was sworn in again before taking his seat on the House floor as session was ongoing.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville called on Jones to speak within minutes of his re-taking his seat.

“I want to welcome the people back to the people’s house. I want to welcome democracy back to the people’s house,” Jones said in his first remarks back on the floor. “On last Thursday, members tried to crucify democracy, but today we have a resurrection.”

“Today, 78,000 people have a voice in this chamber once again,” he added. "No expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us, but only galvanize and strengthen our movement. We continue to show up in the people's house. Power to the people!"

Sexton gaveled participants responding to Jones' speech in the galleries into order twice before Jones finished.

Jones will not be reappointed to legislative committees until after a special election is held. He will be allowed to file 15 new bills, as his original 15 bills were transferred to Leader Karen Camper when he was expelled. Jones said Monday that he plans to use all of those “to call for common sense gun reforms.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/10/justin-jones-expulsion-updates-rally-planned-outside-metro-nashville-council/70099458007/

[Rick Plant]

Since 1989, and a new global economic age began, 48 million net new jobs have been created in America.

46 million - 96% - have been created under Democratic Presidents. Basically all of them.

Don't let Republicans claim they are great with the economy and jobs. They are not. History has proven it. The BLS government statistics also proves it.   

[Rick Plant]

Conservatives defending Harlan Crow’s gifts to Clarence Thomas also have ties to GOP megadonor: report



On April 6, ProPublica published a bombshell report saying that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thomas had, for "over 20 years," been "treated to luxury vacations by Republican donor Harlan Crow" and failed to report it. Thomas' allies were quick to rush to his defense. And some of those defenders, according to The Lever's Andrew Perez, are Crow associates themselves.

One of them is The Manhattan Institute's Ilya Shapiro.

Perez, in an article published by The Lever on April 11, explains, "Hours after ProPublica dropped its report on Thomas, Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the right-wing think tank Manhattan Institute, tweeted, 'Unless Harlan Crow has some business before the Court, the @propublica report about Justice Thomas is a big breathless nothingburger.' Unmentioned: The Manhattan Institute, where Shapiro leads an amicus brief filing program lobbying the Supreme Court to rule certain ways on issues like student debt cancellation and corporate taxation, boasts Crow's wife Kathy on its board of trustees and has been called 'wonderful' by Crow himself."

Perez also notes that conservative journalist Jonah Goldberg, formerly of the National Review and now editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, has been defending Crow vigorously. On April 8, Goldberg tweeted, "Harlan Crow is a deeply honorable, decent, and patriotic person. He's not the strawman Thomas haters are trying to make him."

According to Perez, "As The Dispatch separately noted in a news article covering Crow's gifts to Thomas, 'Harlan Crow is a minority investor in The Dispatch and a friend of the founders.' Goldberg is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank where Crow serves on the board of trustees. Previously, Goldberg was a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, the nonprofit affiliated with the conservative National Review magazine."

Read The Lever’s full article at this link: https://www.levernews.com/the-paid-pundits-defending-clarence-thomas-and-his-billionaire-benefactor/