U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

We can officially say that Donald Trump's "endorsements" don't mean anything and are not influential with Republican voters. He lost badly in Nebraska a few days ago, with Cawthorn last night, and now with the far right wing extremist Trump fanatic Janice McGeachin of Idaho. Even the most staunch Republicans didn't cast their vote for Donnie's handpicked candidates. If Donnie has the "influence" as the media falsley claims, his candidates would be winning in a landslide as soon as the polls close instead of losing early in the night. It's about time the mainstream media acknowledges this as well instead of pretending his endorsements influence voters.         

Idaho Gov. Little defeats Trump-backed McGeachin



Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Tuesday won the GOP gubernatorial primary, beating a Trump-backed challenger who had repeatedly criticized the incumbent for not being conservative enough.

The intraparty contest between Little and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin was an example of the choice GOP voters face nationwide between established candidates and insurgents endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Little and McGeachin frequently feuded over coronavirus precautions and the role of government. Last year McGeachin twice attempted a power grab when Little was out of state on business.

Republicans are almost guaranteed of winning in the general election as Democrats haven’t held the governor’s office since 1995 or statewide office since 2007. Republicans hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, and Democrats aren’t even contesting more than half of the Legislature’s 105 seats.

Little was attending a Republican Governors Association meeting in Tennessee last May when McGeachin issued an executive order banning mask mandates. Little quickly rescinded the order and decried her actions as an “irresponsible, self-serving political stunt.” He had never issued statewide COVID-19 mask mandates, instead saying that local officials should be able to do what they see fit.

She tried it again a few months later when Little was away, issuing an executive order that expanded on a directive that no Idaho government could require vaccine passports. She sought to add K-12 schools and universities to the ban.

McGeachin accused Little, the first-term governor, of rejecting conservative principles, writing on Twitter that “protecting individual liberty means fighting against tyranny at ALL levels of government.”

Little, a rancher from southwest Idaho, served as lieutenant governor from 2009 to 2019 before becoming governor. He touts the record $600 million income tax cut he signed earlier this year that includes a one-time $350 million in rebates and $250 million in permanent income tax reductions going forward for people and businesses.

The 68-year-old Little also highlighted his “Leading Idaho” plan that includes a record $300 million education spending increase, plus spending $200 million ongoing for roads and bridges, the largest ever increase for transportation.

The 59-year-old McGeachin had, and frequently touted, an endorsement by Trump, who won Idaho with 64 percent of the vote in the last general election. McGeachin has also promoted Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him through mass voter fraud.

https://www.idahostatejournal.com/freeaccess/idaho-gov-little-defeats-trump-backed-mcgeachin/article_08b43e21-bc49-5073-bef1-fa0dc5315a81.html

[Rick Plant]

Fetterman wins Democratic nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania



PITTSBURGH — Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has won the Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

The win came two days after Fetterman announced he had suffered a stroke while campaigning but that doctors had told him he had suffered no cognitive damage and would be able to return to the campaign trail. The campaign announced that Fetterman underwent a successful Election Day procedure to have a pacemaker with a defibrillator inserted.

The campaign still held an election night rally, headlined by Fetterman’s wife, Giselle, a fixture at his events. National Democrats see Pennsylvania as the party’s best chance of flipping a U.S. Senate seat this fall.

"Thank you, Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said in a statement. “The fact that so many of you entrusted me with your vote means the world to me, and it’s something I’ll never take for granted. I’m feeling better every day, and I’m going to be back on the campaign trail to thank you all in person soon.”

The 52-year-old Fetterman previously served as the mayor of Braddock, a Pittsburgh suburb. He ran in the 2016 Senate primary as the progressive candidate but finished third before winning the primary for lieutenant governor two years later.

Fetterman gained a higher profile in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when he was a constant presence on cable news and social media rebutting Republican claims of fraud.

Fetterman is also a memorable figure with an atypical look for a politician with a master’s degree from Harvard: He is tall, bald, goateed, tattooed and chooses to wear gym shorts and hoodies whenever possible. When he entered the race in February 2021, he had immediate success in fundraising, bringing in millions from a grassroots network. By the time his primary rival, Rep. Conor Lamb, had entered the race in August, Fetterman had established a lead that carried him through to May.

Part of Fetterman’s political strategy has been to visit every county in the state, including rural areas where Democrats typically lose by 3-1 margins. While there, he doesn’t shy away from espousing support for progressive priorities: He wants to eliminate the legislative filibuster in the Senate (centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is a foil Fetterman likes to invoke), has made marijuana legalization a top priority and is a prominent supporter of unions as well as LGBTQ and abortion rights.

Fetterman has been criticized for missing events at Black churches and a 2013 incident with a Black jogger but he earned the endorsement of the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest Black newspaper in the country, which wrote he “has demonstrated through his campaign that he is the candidate with the broadest appeal across the state and is the best candidate to represent the Democratic Party’s agenda.”

That was one of the few formal endorsements he earned, with most elected officials who opted to support a candidate going for Lamb. Following the primary loss, the congressman said he was throwing his support behind Fetterman.

"Our entire democracy is on the line in November," Lamb said in a statement. "Democrats need to be unequivocally united in our defense of this democracy, and we will be. John’s vote in the Senate is essential to protect this democracy, and he will have my vote in November. I will do everything I can to help Democrats win."

https://news.yahoo.com/john-fetterman-pennsylvania-democratic-senate-nomination-win-005644290.html


Statement from President Biden:

Electing John Fetterman to the United States Senate would be a big step forward for Pennsylvania’s working people.

[Rick Plant]

Josh Shapiro to Face Doug Mastriano in Pa. Governor's Race

With the victory, Mastriano completed a meteoric rise through the state Republican Party ranks, despite efforts from many of the party’s establishment trying to keep him from winning the nomination.

Doug Mastriano, the ultra-conservative state senator from central Pennsylvania, won the Republican primary for Pennsylvania governor, NBC News projects, setting up a race against Democrat Josh Shapiro in the November general election.

With the victory, Mastriano completed a meteoric rise through the state Republican Party ranks, despite efforts from many of the party’s establishment trying to keep him from winning the nomination.

His far-right view on the 2020 presidential election results – he still wants to audit the votes – and his attendance at the “Stop the Steal” protests in Washington D.C. during the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 have caused many in his own Republican party to worry that he could get “clobbered” by Shapiro in the general election later this year.

Shapiro, the state attorney general and a former Montgomery County commissioner who lives in Abington Township, did not have any opponents for the Democratic nomination for governor. He has also raised record-setting amounts of cash for his campaign. He had so much cash, in fact, that in the closing weeks of the primary election cycle, his campaign bought television ads promoting Mastriano.

Republicans tried to stop Mastriano’s momentum in the last month by coalescing around Lou Barletta, a former congressman from Northeast Pennsylvania. Other candidates who had been running for governor, Jake Corman and Melissa Hart, actually dropped out of the race just last week and backed Barletta.

But it was too little too late. Mastriano garnered 40.5% of the votes cast in the primary, as of 9:42 p.m. Barletta had with 22.7%, followed by Bill McSwain with 15.4%. That was after 39% of votes were counted.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/decision-2022/

[Rick Plant]

EXCLUSIVE! Here is the Proud Boys’ plan to take over the Republican Party in South Florida



Members of the Proud Boys right-wing extremist group linked to its founder Gavin McInnis are openly planning and executing a takeover of the Republican Party apparatus in South Florida under an active and rebranded political front group.

Led by practicing attorney Gabe Carrera, who recently published a video of himself in-person on Telegram with both he and McInnes wearing their Proud Boys regalia, the Floridians First group has a comprehensive set of plans with a toolkit that includes sign-up materials for joining Republican Executive Committees in order to take over county-level Republican party committees.

In the largest county, Miami-Dade, the Floridians First group is led by Carrera’s apparent friend and realtor, Chris Barcenas, a Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee member who attended the January 6th insurrection march wearing a black t-shirt with “Enrique Tarrio did nothing wrong” emblazoned on its front in white lettering. The shirt is a callout for his associate, the now-convicted Proud Boys leader Tarrio, who is facing new January 6th related conspiracy charges and is presently held without bail. Sedition hunters identify him as #USAPB. 


Second from right: Enrique Tarrio, Proud Boys leader. Left: Chris Barcenas. Source: Floridians First Facebook page.

Their efforts to obtain party appointments appear to be having measurable success.

Based on the most recently available Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee roster we’ve got, which includes members who have been appointed since the 2020 general election, at least seven are confirmed to be members of the Proud Boys right-wing violent extremist organization.

Five members of the Miami GOP went to the January 6th Capitol insurrection rally, including Barcenas, and three are presently facing criminal charges in connection with that day.

According to a recent roster, the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee has approximately 142 authorized members, of which 82 of those positions are known to be elected roles voted upon during primary elections in general election years. Included in a REC membership list obtained by Occupy Democrats are notorious Proud Boys members. (embedded at the bottom)

They include Gilbert Fonticoba, who has been indicted on numerous criminal charges related to the criminal conspiracies to obstruct Congress from certifying the Presidential vote on January 6th, 2021. Other members of the Committee who are also Proud Boys members include Gabriel Garcias, who has been indicted on charges of assaulting a police officer on January 6th, and who recently told the New York Times that the party had no problem with him remaining because he is innocent until proven guilty. Committeeman Alan Chovel stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Since then, he’s been seen with Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

"Newly unsealed indictment charges alleged Hialeah, FL Proud Boys  member Gilbert Fonticoba in Jan. 6 Capitol riot in case related to Nordean/Biggs/Rehl/Donohoe conspiracy and the Jackman/Rae Fla. group.



REC member Ozzie Perez-Cerezal used to be the Vice President of Latinos For Trump, a political committee that raised about a quarter of a million dollars during the last cycle. He is also a Proud Boys member. So is Adolfo Dominguez-Fuentes, who is listed as a current advisor to Latinos for Trump in addition to his REC membership. Lastly, Pedro Barrios is another Proud Boy who is also an REC member.

With his rebranded Proud Boys group, Gabe Cabrera is pushing to recruit 300 people to Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Republican Executive Committee to elect “red hot spicy chili” MAGA candidates to leadership positions. MAGA refers to the acronym “Make America Great Again,” which is the first Trump presidential campaign’s slogan.

Included in Cabrera’s recruitment materials is a membership package claiming that they are ”Like America First, But with Attitude,” promoting the Floridians First main Telegram channel, and concluding that the group is an “is an UNASHAMED Red Hot Chili MAGA Loving Movement Pushing TRUMP Policies for Broward County!”

The Proud Boy/attorney also has a plan to take over Miami’s GOP districts by creating shadow Republican precinct committee representatives, a strategy which is outlined in a blog post and video (embedded below) where Cabrera cautioned Floridians First members not to use the term “GOP” or “we’ll be sued.”

An overall Proud Boys plan is outlined on the “Floridian’s First” group’s website, and their mission statement is clear:

"Floridians First mission is NOT to create a 3rd party as some are doing, but rather to TAKE OVER the local GOPs by having America First Constitutional Conservatives apply in numbers to out vote the Republicans In Name Only (RINO’s)”

"MAGA recovery” is described as a three-step plan involving removing what they deem as not conservative enough Republicans from power.

The first step, according to Floridians First, involves recruiting 300 “America First MAGA-minded supporters to join their local Republican party as active voting members.

After raising “an army of MAGA-Minded individual [sic] who are [sic] willing to participate in the local GOP!” to “Drain the GOP Swamp of its snakes and slimy politico creatures aka RINOs” before establishing a slate of “Red-Hot Chili MAGA candidates.”

The Floridians First group also wants to send out legal notices calling for a no-confidence vote to remove “RINOs” and install their MAGA officers.


Floridians First aka Proud Boys, plan to take over South Florida’s Republican Party apparatus starting in Fort Lauderdale’s Broward County. Source: floridiansfirst.us

The final step in its plan involves holding the new officers accountable to the “MAGA SAVE AMERICA Agenda” and assisting the new executive board in vetting “MAGA-Minded Candidates for public office.

“THE BEST IS YET TO COME” is printed at the bottom of the plan alongside a link to join the Broward Republican Executive Committee with a complete membership package. Floridians First’s website continues:

“We are starting our focus in South Florida to drain the political Broward GOP Swamp. There are political fights of the swamp all over Florida and we seriously recognize that. As we grow in numbers with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ blessing us we will open other Florida First chapters throughout the state of Florida. For now we are focusing right here in sunny Broward County that is the most progressive bluest county in all Florida.”

An archived copy of Floridians First’s original website says that lawyer Gabe Carrera “got pissed-off like 80-Million other Trump supporters (President Joe Biden won more than 81 million votes in 2020) and created the group.

The above-described plan has been present on the earliest version of the website through today.

Miami-Dade’s Chapter of Floridians First is no longer linked to the main page, but a search of the Google Cache (archived here) shows that the page existed. It appears to hold some of the same content found in an active blog post entitled “THE AMERICA FIRST MIAMI-DADE STRATEGY FOR FLORIDIANS FIRST!” containing a video showing Carrera lecturing about the Miami-Dade GOP’s party structure and how to best infiltrate it.

“The program is going to be called the ‘precinct patriot plan,’ and what that is is that we’re going to assign people who raise their hand and step forward a precinct,” explained Carrera. “And what does that mean?  It means you’re going to be the neighborhood GOP guru. Well, not GOP, because we can’t use that; we’ll get sued. You’ll be the conservative, liberty-loving, US Constitution flag-hugging individual that’s going to educate those in your precinct.”

From its now-private Instagram account, the Floridians First Miami-Dade group shares links with easy-to-follow instructions entitled “Become a Miami-Dade Republican Committee Member” alongside links to its Telegram channels. “Let me know if you have any questions,” concludes the instruction sheet with links to the specific forms necessary to join the Republican Executive Committee and signed “Chris Barcenas, Director of Miami-Dade Floridians First” with his phone number. (archived)

Today, the Miami Proud Boys inside the Republican Executive Committee and their associates can be found at many of the events Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds in South Florida. Current Executive Committee members who are affiliated with the Proud Boys are Gilbert Fonticaba, Pedro Barrios, Ozzie Perez-Cerezal, Nowell Sangueiro, Chris Barcenas, Adolfo Dominguez-Fuentes, and Gabriel Garcia.  The January 6th participants are Gilbert Fonticaba, Chris Barcenas, and Gabriel Garcias. Additional Executive Committee members who were at the January 6th insurrection are Alan Chovel and Barbara Balsameda.

Anyone can see the Florida governor — who is fearful of questions from the press — if they follow the Floridians First Miami-Dade Telegram channel, which Barcenas is believed to run.

In March, the channel administrator posted a link to the governor’s campaign event with famous Cuban-American UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal two days before the fundraiser at The Wharf, a popular bar outside of downtown Miami.



Despite Masvidal’s pending multiple felony charges, DeSantis kept the appointment with the fighter accused of causing brain damage when he allegedly assaulted a UFC fighter and former roommate who only recently defeated him in a nationally televised pay-per-view match.

In early April, tickets to the governor’s party appearance at the Miami-Dade Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner were made available.

Since DeSantis’ appearance, though, the Miami GOP has been roiled by internecine warfare, starting when one of its executive committee members Nowell Salgueiro, a Proud Boys member, is alleged to have assaulted a woman after several people in the dinner were escorted out by security.

Occupy Democrats exclusively reported the incident last week with footage of a corresponding restraining order being served against Salgueiro at the party’s meetings in West Miami’s Renaissance Ballrooms in late April.



Miami GOP did not use that venue for a follow-up meeting in which our article was discussed by Executive Committee members.

The drift towards right-wing extremism within the ranks of Miami-Dade Republicans has been a public and violent one with its roots in the middle of the Trump era.

Just before the pivotal 2018 Midterm elections, members of the Miami GOP led by the party’s chairman staged an unhinged protest outside of former Congresswoman Donna Shalala’s campaign office.

Whipped into a frenzy by the soon-to-be future leader of the Proud Boys national hate group and led by Miami GOP Party Chairman Nelson Diaz and future-Florida Trump campaign chairman Kevin Cabrera, the gathering of Republicans, which included multiple paid Florida GOP operatives, descended quickly into a riot-like scene. Cabrera, a former district director for Rep. Carlos Curbelo, is now running for an open seat on Miami-Dade’s Board of County Commissioners and raised $100,000 in the first week of fundraising for his Dade First Political Committee in that race.

A mob entered the campaign office’s private entranceway to confront then-Minority leader Nancy Pelosi shouting obscenities while she entered the office flanked by the Capitol Police. With Diaz in the lead, the mob terrified local political volunteers when they started violently pounding on the office’s side entrance demanding entry, earning a rebuke from one of the officers.

Nelson Diaz apologized for the embarrassing episode while facing widespread condemnation even from his former boss, Marco Rubio, only after both the Republican chairman’s emails — and his RSVP to the Facebook event page organizing the catastrophe — were exposed .

The Senator, who employed Diaz as Chief of Staff when he was the Speaker of the Florida House, is of Cuban-American descent like the former Chair. That amplified the meaning of Sen. Rubio’s remarks when he described the scene his protege led as a “repudiation mob,” an intimidation tactic used by Fidel Castro in Cuban for actos de repudio, which is when the regime in Cuba engineered mob denouncements of government critics or political opponents to sew the fear of violent political retribution, public beatings or death.

Yet, Nelson Diaz remained in charge of a Republican party political operation that welcomed violent and extremist far-right actors within its ranks until late last year.

Former Florida State Senator Rene Garcia, who won election to the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners after being termed out for a second time, is the Miami GOP’s new chairman.

Last year, the rebranded Miami-Dade Republican Party hired Brandon Diaz as its executive director. He previously served as director of communications for the Miami Young Republicans. According to the Facebook profiles of both parties, Brandon Diaz is involved in a romantic relationship with Barbara Balsameda, a GOP operative that was an intern for Senator Marco Rubio. In 2018, Balsameda served as an organizer in Ron DeSantis’s first gubernatorial campaign. 

More recently, she worked as campaign manager for Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia who is best known for winning the 2020 Senate race by 34 votes after a fake candidate scheme that led to criminal charges against former GOP State Senator Frank Artiles. The fake candidate pled guilty.

Balsamera recently came into prominence after being potentially identified in pictures inside the U.S Capitol on the January 6th insurrection mob alongside Proud Boys members Gabriel Garcia and Ethan Nordean, both of whom were arrested and charged in connection to their participation in storming the Capitol on January 6th.

The GOP political operative Balsmera was indeed inside the Capitol that day, according to a former Proud Boy member’s statement to the Miami New Times.

Diaz resigned at the end of April with only one day’s formal notice to pursue an unspecified position “more in line with my field of expertise in Marketing & Communications.” His resignation letter bragged about hosting the “largest and most successful Lincoln Day dinner in the 74-year history of the Party” and concluded, “The best is yet to come.” Last week, the Miami-Dade Republican Party lost its appeal against a hefty $21,000 fine incurred at the start of his tenure as executive director for failure to file timely campaign finance reports.

The 2021-2022 Republican Executive Committee roster shows that Barbara Balsameda is still a member alongside Gabriel Garcia.

Other far-right members of the Miami GOP Executive Committee include Chris Barcenas and Nowell Salgueiro.

The saying goes, the fish rots from the head down, which is certainly the case for the Republican Party of Florida. While no footage of him inside the Capitol has surfaced, the RPOF’s Vice-Chair was a January 6th rally participant.

Chair Joe Gruters boasted on social media about sending buses to a rally that always aimed to overturn legitimate election results.

The first step in the Proud Boys’ plan involves recruiting 300 “America First MAGA-minded supporters to join their local Republican party as active voting members. After establishing a slate of “Red-Hot Chili MAGA candidates”, Floridian’s First wants to send out legal notices calling for a no-confidence vote to remove “RINOs” and install their MAGA officers. The final step in their plan involves holding the new officers accountable to the “MAGA SAVE AMERICA Agenda” and assisting the new executive board in vetting “MAGA-Minded Candidates for public office.

The influx of Proud Boys and January 6th rioters into the Republican Party of Miami-Dade doesn’t seem to have impacted their operations positively. Miami-Dade Republicans just lost the appeal of a $21,181 fine issued by the county elections department for three months late filing a quarterly financial report in 2021.

County Commissioner Sen. Rene Garcia, who is the Chair of the Miami-Dade GOP, blamed the fine on a gap between the resignation of their previous treasurer and the election of the current treasurer, Annette Hernandez.

Brandon Diaz resigned from his Executive Director position in a letter addressed to Rene Garcia sent on April 29th, 2022. The reason for Diaz’s departure in his letter is that he has accepted another offer “for a position more in line” with his “field of expertise.” Whether that may be the case, public records confirmed the $21,000 fine, which equaled 25% of the party’s campaign contributions for that quarter. A source familiar with his departure mentioned his relationship with Balsameda and association with other January 6th participants created tension within the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee.

There are notable figures holding leadership positions within the Miami GOP’s Executive Committee. As we previously noted, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rene Garcia serves as Chairman, alongside recently elected City of West Miami Mayor Eric Diaz Padron. We contacted both Garcia and Padron for comment regarding their comfort level, knowing that far-right extremists and January 6th participants serve in this leadership body alongside them. Neither man responded for comment.

2022 Miami Republican Executive Committee List:



https://occupydemocrats.com/2022/05/17/exclusive-here-is-the-proud-boys-plan-to-take-over-the-republican-party-in-south-florida/

[Rick Plant]

Biden condemns racist theory of white supremacy in visit to Buffalo after mass shooting


Family members of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield who was killed during a mass shooting at Tops market listen as attorney Benjamin Crump speaks at a May 16 press conference. A gunman opened fire at the store on Saturday killing ten people and wounding another three. Scott Olson/Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Tuesday commemorated the victims of last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and condemned the ideology that drove the killer to “carry out a murderous, racist rampage” at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

In a visit to the Upstate New York city, Biden and other New York Democrats, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, rebuked the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory the shooting suspect adhered to and called for federal action to restrict access to guns.

But before talking about gun policy or replacement theory, Biden named the victims in the Saturday rampage at Tops Friendly Markets. The Buffalo News reported that 13 people were shot and all 10 victims who died were Black, in the city’s worst shooting in history.

They included 77-year-old Pearl Young, a grandmother and public school teacher who also ran a local food pantry, and Andre Mackneil, a restaurant worker who was buying a cake for his son’s third birthday.

“His son’s celebrating a birthday asking, ‘Where’s Daddy?’” Biden said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has said the crime is being investigated as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism, with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives working in conjunction with Buffalo police.

A ‘poison’ in U.S. society

After that introduction memorializing the victims, Biden focused his remarks on white supremacy, which he called “a poison … running through our body politic.”

He alluded to politicians and media members who exploited the so-called great replacement theory — a false view that holds white Americans are under threat of extinction by a plot to systematically replace them with nonwhite people.

The suspected Buffalo killer, 18-year-old white man Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York, reportedly posted a 180-page document filled with “great replacement” talking points before traveling to the supermarket on Buffalo’s predominately Black East Side to commit the killings. Gendron has been charged with one count of murder and will return to court on Thursday for a felony hearing, officials said.

“The internet has radicalized angry, alienated, lost and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be ‘replaced,’” Biden said. “I and all of you reject the lie. I call on all Americans to reject the lie. And I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and profit.”

Biden did not specifically name anyone who exploited that lie for their own gain. White replacement is a frequent theme on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program and leading Republicans, including the No. 3 House Republican, Elise Stefanik of New York, have echoed its core premise.

Earlier Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration was choosing not to name anyone associated with the ideology, to deny them attention.

“The people who spread this filth know who they are, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” she told reporters en route to Buffalo. “But I’m not going to give them or [the] obnoxious ideas they’re pushing the attention that they desperately want.”

Schumer writes to Fox executives

Schumer took a different approach, writing to Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and three other Fox executives Tuesday, calling for an end to the airing of great replacement views. Carlson was carbon copied on the letter.

“This pernicious theory, which has no basis in fact, has been injected into the mainstream thanks in large part to a dangerous level of amplification by your network and its anchors,” Schumer wrote.

In a Tuesday afternoon tweet, Schumer said Carlson had invited him on the program to “debate the letter.” Schumer declined, he said.

On his Monday show, Carlson distanced himself from Gendron’s writings and accused Democrats of using the tragedy against him.

“Because one mentally ill teenager murdered strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud,” he said. “That is what they are telling you. That is what they wanted to tell you for a long time, but Saturday’s massacre gives them a pretext and justification.”

A representative for Fox News did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.

The letter followed a Monday floor speech Schumer gave that also called out Carlson by name and linked great replacement ideology to former President Donald Trump.

“Unfortunately, with each passing year, it seems harder and harder to ignore that replacement theory, and other racially motivated views are increasingly coming out into the open and given purported legitimacy by some MAGA Republicans and cable news pundits,” Schumer said Monday.

Schumer said the shooter’s goal was to kill as many Black people as possible. Hochul noted Gendron drove three hours and chose the location specifically with that goal in mind.

Biden called the shooting “domestic terrorism.”

Biden said radicalization could not be stopped, but that the use of the internet to advance its dangerous effects possibly could be.

“We can’t prevent people from being radicalized to violence,” he said. “But we can address the relentless exploitation of the internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism.”

Biden linked the Buffalo attack to shootings at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and three Asian-American spas in Atlanta last year and to the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that he said inspired him to run for president.

Charlottesville rally goers chanted replacement theory slogans. Trump later defended the rally, calling some participants “very fine people.”

Hate and guns a lethal combination

Hochul blamed the shooting on a mix of hateful ideology and easy access to guns.

“It is that lethal combination that resulted in the loss of 10 decent, good people,” she said.

Gendron used a rifle with a modified magazine that she said was illegal in New York. She called for “a national gun policy,” saying that the killer easily brought a magazine from Pennsylvania that was not permitted under New York state law.

U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat who represents Buffalo, also called for a national gun law.

Biden called for keeping assault weapons off the streets, saying a previous ban enacted when he was U.S. Senate Judiciary chairman led to a decrease in shootings. Congress did not renew that ban when it expired in 2004.

Schumer said he would work in the Senate to combat white supremacy and rid “our streets of weapons of war.”

Congressional Democrats have for years routinely tried to pass federal gun legislation after mass shootings, but have not been successful.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence.

https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/05/17/biden-condemns-racist-theory-of-white-supremacy-in-visit-to-buffalo-after-mass-shooting/


WATCH: Biden condemns ‘replacement theory’ in speech during an Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month event

[Rick Plant]

Exclusive: Senate Republicans bristle after being asked about white supremacy in wake of Buffalo shooting



White supremacists are an growing threat in America, according to the FBI, National Counterterrorism Center, and Department of Homeland Security. But Republicans on Capitol Hill beg to differ, no matter the mounting evidence to the contrary from Buffalo, El Paso, and even last year’s attack on their own office building, the United States Capitol, on Jan. 6.

In the wake of this weekend’s deadly Buffalo shooting – by an alleged gunman who said on social media he was targeting Blacks – most Republicans deny there’s a trend.

“I think it's tragic. I don't know if you could call it a trend or not,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told Raw Story on his way to a closed-door intelligence briefing in the underbelly of the Capitol.

The close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell represents El Paso, which is still healing from the 2019 attack that left 23 dead – and another 23 injured – at the hands of a racist who released a manifesto before his cowardly act. But to Cornyn, whether it’s El Paso, Charleston, Charlottesville, or the Jan. 6 attack – where Black officers were repeatedly called the N-word as they fought to protect Cornyn and others – there’s no white supremacy to see in America, a nation founded on the doctrine that Blacks were only 3/5ths human.

“It's just a cop out, trying to blame this on – I mean, it's violence committed by either criminal people or people who are deranged,” Cornyn said. “And if people want to put that in a pigeonhole or category – whether it's ‘hate crime’ or whatever – it doesn't make it any less evil.”

Other Republicans see conspiratorial tinges when they have to even entertain questions about white supremacists – even days after a self-appointed white supremacist allegedly slayed innocent Black shoppers. The problem is the question itself.

“I think it's awful. I think it's grotesquely divisive,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story while riding up an elevator just off the Senate floor. “What it is is the media's showing themselves for who they are, which are advocates for the radical left. And they're just trying to cover up for Biden now.”

Recently, Johnson served as chair of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee.

“We see gangs. We see cyber threats. I mean, I think there's actually more threatening threats,” Johnson continued, “I mean, there's more serious threats facing this nation than what's posed by white supremacists. Now again, I condemn it. Obviously.”

The Wisconsin senator then pointed to Chicago and all the murders there that are “Black on Black.

“Now, I'd be concerned about that. Again, I'm concerned about all violence. But I mean, I would focus my attention on where the murders are actually occurring,” Johnson said on Tuesday, three days after 10 people were killed in Buffalo. “And I'd be focusing my attention on what can we do to start preventing overdose deaths.”

Down in Indiana, there may be white supremacists – more than 15 white supremacist hate groups are being tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the Hoosier State alone – but the state’s senior senator isn’t worried. He won’t even answer questions about it.

“Oh gosh,” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) told Raw Story while heading into a Republican-only lunch at the Capitol. “I'll tell you, what's on most Hoosier’s minds is inflation, border security, war in Europe. I think the president and our national Democratic leaders would be well served by finding some solutions to our most pressing challenges.”

To other Republicans, it’s a problem, but they’re not sure anything can be done to stop white domestic extremists.

“The question is: can you find a lone actor?” Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told Raw Story, before stepping in to buy lunch in the Capitol basement.

The former Senate Intelligence Committee chair helped ramp up domestic and foreign surveillance in the wake of 9-11, but says these cases – involving angry, homegrown white boys – are different.

“Unless you're going to surveil somebody 24/7 – and it didn't sound like it raised to a level to do that – there's that vulnerability in a free society,” Burr said, explaining U.S. law now makes it easier to surveil foreign terrorists. “We have different tools to surveil them versus domestic. I think you get into some very big constitutional questions pretty quickly.”

There’s no reason to focus attention on white supremacist violence – even in the wake of white supremacist violence – according to current Senate Intelligence Vice-Chair Marco Rubio (R-FL) who waxed philosophical when approached by Raw Story on his way to a classified meeting.

“Sadly, there isn't an ideology – or, frankly, religion – in the world that doesn't have adherents that commit horrifying atrocities. These deranged people can justify it anywhere they want, but we've had Black nationalist shootings in America. We had a Chinese immigrant go after Taiwanese immigrants in California the day after that shooting in Buffalo. We've had a congressional shooting here targeted by a socialist,” Rubio continued, “So once people make up their mind about some ideology or some belief system, they can justify it. You know, radical Islam. History has been replete with people that justify violence with Christianity. So it's a terrible part of the human condition.”

“Oh my God,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said, her voice dropping, after Raw Story relayed what her Republican colleagues have been saying about white supremacists in the wake of the Buffalo shooting.

“That continues the false narrative that Fox News puts out,” Gillibrand continued, “White supremacy is a scourge. It’s something that we have to address head on. It is proliferating evil and hate and division in this country, and we all have to stand up and fight against it.”

https://www.rawstory.com/senate-republicans-questioned-about-white-supremacists/

[Rick Plant]

For a second time, judge blocks state from using DeSantis’ congressional districts



A state trial judge has forbidden the state from running this year’s midterm elections using the congressional redistricting map that Gov. Ron DeSantis forced the Legislature to enact, citing the prospect of “irreparable harm” to voters, especially North Florida Blacks.

Circuit Judge Layne Smith, sitting in Leon County, insisted Monday that the state stick to an alternative map that he approved on Friday, which maintains a Black-access district stretching from Duval to Gadsden counties, including parts of Tallahassee.

Smith, a DeSantis appointee, said the law allows him to vacate an automatic stay that took effect once the state filed its appeal of last week’s ruling if the interest of fairness or if the state is unlikely to prevail on appeal and if it would cause irreparable harm.

“The court finds overwhelmingly compelling circumstances against maintaining the stay in this action,” Smith continued.

“Fundamental rights are at stake and time is both short and the of the essence. There are no do-overs when it comes to elections; in essence, there is no remedy for a Florida voter once their constitutional rights have been infringed,” he wrote.

The state’s appeal remains pending before the First District, although that court could ask the state Supreme Court to take the case right away given the late date: Qualifying for congressional elections runs from June 13 to June 17; primaries are set for Aug. 23 and the general election for Nov. 8.

Voting rights organizations including Black Voters Matter, the Equal Ground Education Fund, the League of Women Voters of Florida, and five individual voters who live within the contested district challenged the governor’s district boundaries in Smith’s court.

The lawsuit names Secretary of State Laurel Lee, who oversees elections, Attorney General Ashley Moody, House Speaker Chris Sprowls, Senate President Wilton Simpson, and the head of the state House and Senate redistricting committees.

Lee has announced her resignation, which took effect on Monday; DeSantis has named state House Republican Cord Byrd to replace her pending confirmation by the state Senate.

A separate federal legal attack on the DeSantis map is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

The DeSantis plan provides for 20 GOP seats among the 28 Florida is entitled to following the 2020 U.S. Census. It also splits Black communities in Central Florida and the Tampa Bay area, eliminating two of the state’s four reliable Black districts, but they didn’t figure in Smith’s order.

That North Florida district, CD 5, mirrors a constituency the Florida Supreme Court created in 2015, citing the Fair Districts amendment; Black Democrat Al Lawson has held the seat since then. However, DeSantis complained the district amounted to a racial gerrymander.

The governor forced the Legislature to OK map during a special session in April. The House debate broke down for about one hour because Black and other Democrats staged a sit-in on the floor, but Republicans returned and pushed the governor’s map through to passage.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/05/17/for-a-second-time-judge-blocks-state-from-using-desantis-congressional-districts/

[Rick Plant]

Because of Donald Trump's disastrous USMCA trade deal which prohibits the amount of dairy and baby formula that Canada can export, President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to increase the supply of baby formula to the United States.

Biden invokes Defense Production Act for formula shortage

President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and has authorized flights to import supply from overseas

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden on Wednesday invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and authorized flights to import supply from overseas, as he faces mounting political pressure over a domestic shortage caused by the safety-related closure of the country's largest formula manufacturing plant.

The Defense Production Act order requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill orders from those companies before other customers, in an effort to eliminate production bottlenecks. Biden is also authorizing the Defense Department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies that meet federal standards from overseas to the U.S., in what the White House is calling “Operation Fly Formula.”

Supplies of baby formula across the country have been severely curtailed in recent weeks after a February recall by Abbott Nutrition exacerbated ongoing supply chain disruptions among formula makers, leaving fewer options on store shelves and increasingly anxious parents struggling to find nutrition for their children.

“I know parents across the country are worried about finding enough formula to feed their babies,” Biden said in a video statement released by the White House. ”As a parent and as a grandparent, I know just how stressful that is."

The announcement comes two days after the Food and Drug Administration said it was streamlining its review process to make it easier for foreign manufacturers to begin shipping more formula into the U.S.

In a letter Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, Biden directed the agencies to work with the Pentagon to identify overseas supply of formula that meets U.S. standards over the next week, so that chartered Defense Department flights can swiftly fly it to the U.S.

“Imports of baby formula will serve as a bridge to this ramped-up production,” Biden wrote.

Regulators said Monday that they’d reached a deal to allow Abbott Nutrition to restart its Sturgis, Michigan, plant, the nation's largest formula plant, which has been closed since February due to contamination issues. The company must overhaul its safety protocols and procedures before resuming production.

After getting the FDA’s OK, Abbott said it will take eight to ten weeks before new products begin arriving in stores. The company didn’t set a timeline to restart manufacturing.

“I’ve directed my team to do everything possible to ensure there’s enough safe baby formula and that it is quickly reaching families that need it the most,” Biden said in the statement, calling it “one of my top priorities.”

The White House actions come as the Democratic-led House is expected to approve two bills Wednesday addressing the baby formula shortage as lawmakers look to show progress on what has become a frightening development for many families.

One bill expected to have wide bipartisan support would give the secretary of the Department of Agriculture the ability to issue a narrow set of waivers in the event of a supply disruption. The goal is to give participants in an assistance program commonly known as WIC the ability to use vouchers to purchase formula from any producer rather than be limited to one brand that may be unavailable. The WIC program accounts for about half of infant formula sales in the U.S.

The other measure, a $28 million emergency spending bill to boost resources at the Food and Drug Administration, is expected to have less bipartisan support and it’s unclear whether the Senate will take it up.

“This is throwing more FDA staff at a problem that needs more production, not more FDA staff,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the money would increase FDA staffing to boost inspections of domestic and international suppliers, prevent fraudulent products from getting onto store shelves and acquire better data on the marketplace.

Abbott’s voluntary recall was triggered by four illnesses reported in babies who had consumed powdered formula from its plant. All four infants were hospitalized with a rare type of bacterial infection and two died.

After a six-week inspection, FDA investigators published a list of problems in March, including lax safety and sanitary standards and a history of bacterial contamination in several parts of the plant. Under Monday’s agreement, Abbott must regularly consult with an outside safety expert to restart and maintain production.

Chicago-based Abbott has emphasized that its products have not been directly linked to the bacterial infections in children. Samples of the bacteria found at its plant did not match the strains collected from two babies by federal investigators.

But FDA officials pushed back on that reasoning Monday on a call with reporters — their first time publicly addressing the company’s argument. FDA staffers noted they were unable to collect bacterial strains from two of the four patients, limiting their chances of finding a match.

“Right from the get-go we were limited in our ability to determine with a causal link whether the product was linked to these four cases because we only had sequences on two,” FDA’s food director Susan Mayne said.

Fixing the violations uncovered at Abbott’s plant will take time, according to former FDA officials. Companies need to exhaustively clean the facility and equipment, retrain staff, repeatedly test and document there is no contamination.

As part of the FDA’s new import policy, regulators said companies would need to provide documentation of their factory’s inspections.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/biden-invokes-defense-production-act-formula-shortage-84820352