Winter Patriot Community Blog

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ProgressVirginia reported Tuesday afternoon that the Virginia Senate’s Privileges and Elections Committee killed Sen. Charles “Bill” Carrico Sr.’s electoral college-rigging bill, despite an offer by Carrico to amend the bill to award electors in proportion to the state’s popular vote. The vote was 11-4 against the bill, although it will not be official until the close of the committee meeting.

Politico leaked a Supreme Court draft opinion in May revealing that a majority of justices supported overturning Roe, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed access to abortion nationwide. It was a stunning draft. And since then, we've heard some Republican chatter about banning contraception. You see, this never was about children. It's about control.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, the gun-toting Colorado congresswoman who ran on a law and order platform, has been arrested quite a few times and received her GED diploma a few months before winning the election to Congress. She joked recently about praying for President Joe Biden's death, so she's already been outed as a hypocrite on multiple levels. She describes herself as pro-life, and a family values Republican.

The American Muckrackers PAC that helped to take down Rep. Madison Cawthorn's reelection efforts in North Carolina just aimed at Boebert, and it's a doozy. According to the PAC, Boebert, who would like to strip other women of their right to choose, had two abortions. One of the abortions she had was at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.

Boebert allegedly worked as a paid escort and met Sen. Ted Cruz through a client, and this whole story is getting even weirder. To be clear, no one here cares if she was a sex worker, but we do care about her stunning hypocrisy regarding abortion rights. She believes that life begins at conception, but only if other women are pregnant.

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First Lieutenant Ize Alimi is the second Muslim African-American first lieutenant with a previously exemplary record facing discharge from the Army at Fort Polk, Louisiana. This stands in sharp contrast with a March 2020 Officer Evaluation Report (OER) recommendation that he be promoted to captain. And that, in turn reminds us that discrimination in the military hurts the military as well as those being discriminated against.

Alimi’s case is in some ways even more striking than that of First Lt. Khadijah X, who was accused of posing a terrorist threat after she changed her last name from Simmons to X (my Salon story here). But both reflect the same underlying reality, described by Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which is representing both of them.

"Tragically, there exists inside the Department of Defense (DoD) an unconstitutionally pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice of systemic anti-Islamic oppression at all levels of the chain of command.” Weinstein said in a press release. “1Lt. Ize Alimi is another victim of this evil as is 1Lt Khadijah X. What generally fuels this unbridled hatred, bigotry and prejudice within DoD is fundamentalist Christian nationalism, supremacy, exceptionalism and exclusivity."

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Over the weekend, more than 30 white supremacists were arrested while on their way to start a riot and cause mayhem at a Pride event. The reaction of Fox host Pete Hegseth was very telling to say the least:

STROHMIER: So, police say all thirty-one people are being charged with conspiracy to riot. One man's hat said, "Victory or Death." Another's shirt read "Reclaim America." Many of the men reportedly wore patches identifying them with the Patriot Front group. The Daily Mail also reporting police recovered at least one smoke grenade and an operations plan for the event inside that truck. The police chief says the intentions of the men were clear to start a riot. And then video later circulating of the men were kneeling on the grass with their hands zip-tied behind their backs and being escorted away by police. Police say they learned about the U-Haul from a tipster who reported the men loading into the truck in the parking lot of a hotel. Back to you guys —

CAIN: Ok, thank you Ashley.

HEGSETH: I just want to know how many BLM riots were prevented because we got in on the inside, before they rioted and burned down cities.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Very interesting.

HEGSETH: Never ahead of that curve.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Never. Never.

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During Monday's January 6 hearing testimony both Bill Stepien and Jason Miller said Rudy Giuliani was inebriated on November 3, when he tried to talk Trump into declaring victory the night of the 2020 election.

"Was there anyone in that conversation, who in your observation had too much to drink?"

"Mayor Giuliani."

"What was your observation about his potential intoxication during that discussion about what the president should say when he addressed the nation on election night?"

Miller: "The mayor was definitely intoxicated but I do not know his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president, for example."

Rudy's response was as you might expect.

I am disgusted and outraged at the out right lie by Jason Miller and Bill Steppien. I was upset that they were not prepared for the massive cheating (as well as other lawyers around the President) I REFUSED all alcohol that evening. My favorite drink..Diet Pepsi

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) June 14, 2022

Rudy was drunk on diet Pepsi, who knew? Is it better to be thought to be drunk or to really be drunk?

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Fox News host Brian Kilmeade bashed the 9/11 families for criticizing US golfers for participating in the new LIV Golf tournament owned by the Saudis.

Terry Strada, the 9/11 Families United National Chair, issued a scathing statement about the league and against all golfers for taking Saudi money.

Kilmeade joined Stuart Varney to defend LIV and everything Saudi Arabia, all while passive-aggressively bashing the 9/11 families for making a scene. And then of course Brian got in a Trump grievance to top it off.

Varney said the LIV was met with anger from 9/11 families. Kilmeade whined supporting the Saudis, who own English soccer teams and are now bidding on Newcastle.

"Does that mean Newcastle fans should stop going?" he said.

Kilmeade said, "Why are fans going to Chelsea games? Manchester City is owned by UAE..."

Hey, idiot.

Saudi hijackers, led by Osama Bin Laden, didn't send two planes crashing into Britain's Twin Towers -- Big Ben -- killing over 3000 of the English people. What does the Premier Soccer League or the World Cup have to do with the 9/11 families?

Then he launched into the failed USFL football league and the ABA as a way to take down the PGA.

"I'm not speaking for the Saudi families," he said mistakenly.

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Initially, when I heard about this story I assumed they just cut away from her throwing out the first pitch. Awful, but typical for Murdoch entities. Instead, they went further, airing NASCAR driver Kurt Busch making a ceremonial toss during Thursday's game. And making things even worse, Amy Schneider had appeared Saturday as part of Pride Day at Oracle Park. That's just Orwellian levels of evilness.

Source: NBC

Fox Sports opted against airing "Jeopardy" champion Amy Schneider throwing out a first pitch during the network’s coverage of a baseball game from San Francisco this weekend, instead showing footage of NASCAR driver Kurt Busch making a ceremonial toss.

Schneider, an Oakland resident who triumphed in 40 consecutive "Jeopardy" contests and is the show's greatest female player, took the mound ahead of the Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers game on Saturday.

The unexplained snub took on even greater weight since Schneider, the first transgender woman to qualify for "Jeopardy's" Tournament of Champions, had appeared Saturday as part of Pride Day at Oracle Park.

But wait, the story gets worse.

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ESPN host Stephen A Smith had some harsh words for defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, but also made an astute observation about the insurrection on January 6.

Jack Del Rio's comments were insensitive, they were wrong," Smith conceded.

Del Rio called the attack on the US Capitol a "dust-up" and Smith reminded him that people were killed during the violence.

"They tried to overthrow our government," he reminded. “And we ain’t even bring up the fact that if it were Black people instead of white folks out there --- Black folks might’ve got slaughtered.”

“Black folks might’ve got slaughtered. If all the things that have happened to us in our nation’s history, we never stormed the U.S. Capitol. We knew better than that,” he said.

I've had some real issues with some of Smith's commentary in the past, but when you're right, you're right.

If a BLM protest had ransacked the Capitol in 2017, to stop electoral votes being counted against Trump,Fox News would have been calling for death penalties around the clock.

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KremlinTV is watching the House select committee's hearings very closely and they're getting quite perturbed at what they're seeing, one of them calling it "a lynching in prime time." Russia wants nothing more than a Republican-controlled Congress, and Donald Trump back in office as soon as possible. They know with those factors in place that the rest of eastern Europe is theirs for the taking.

Source: Daily Beast

The attempted insurrection was embraced by the Kremlin as cause célèbre, with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself calling for an investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was part of the crowd attacking the U.S. Capitol. Russia’s state-controlled media obsessively covered the notorious attack, praising the would-be insurrectionists as law-abiding protesters and criticizing the United States for prosecuting them. But now, propagandists seem to be concerned that the hearings may negatively impact the chances of re-election for their so-called “partner,” former U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

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With some questions about Oz, where he actually lives (a mansion in New Jersey) and if he's actually registered to vote in Pennsylvania (turns out he has been since late 2020), it's nonetheless amusing that they've misspelled the name of the town he supposedly lives in.

Besides the triviality of the typo, albeit on an official document, Oz's address of 2711 Philmont Ave in Huntingdon Valley appears to be a former car dealership.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

- Abraham Lincoln

Mehmet Oz's entire campaign is predicated on the belief that the good people of Pennsylvania are stupid.

Source: Business Insider

Republican Pennsylvania Senate nominee Mehmet Oz misspelled the name of his Keystone State address on an official campaign form.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders debated Lindsey Graham on Fox Nation last night. Bernie argued that Medicare for All, Social Security expansion, and a higher minimum wage are "what the American people want" and blasted the political establishment for ignoring the most important crises facing the United States, from the climate emergency to obscene levels of economic inequality. Via Common Dreams:

"That's what the establishment does, and Lindsey is a very good and effective representation of the establishment," Sanders said after Graham delivered his opening remarks of the debate, which was held at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston and streamed live by Fox Nation. "Does Lindsey have a concern that we are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people? That some 60,000 people a year die because they don't get to a doctor on time? I didn't hear much about that in that opening statement."

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One of the Patriot Front extremists was kicked out of his mother’s house after he was arrested with dozens of white nationalists in Idaho, apparently to provoke violence at a Pride event. Via the New Civil Rights Movement:

Karen Amsden, the mother of Jared Michael Boyce, told The Daily Beast that her son had struggled since his father left their family years ago and came out as gay, and she said she was going public in hopes of damaging her son’s reputation in the group and finally cut ties with white nationalism.

“I would love to do whatever I can to out him [as a Patriot Front member] so that he can’t be a part of it,” Amsden said, “and that they don’t want him to be a part of their group because his mom has loose lips and a big mouth and he’s never going to get away with anything.”

[...] “I told him, ‘Well, then you can’t live here. You can choose between Patriot Front and your family,’” she said, “and he’s like, ‘Well, I can’t quit Patriot Front.’ I’m like, ‘Well, then you’ve just chosen. So pack your stuff and get out of my house.’”

Boyce wasn't an incel. He was married with kids when he discovered Patriot Front, and it alienated him from his family. His mother is a social worker, he wasn't raised this way. Like many people, he was radicalized online.

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John Oliver called out the “anti-competitive conduct” of big tech, urging bipartisan support of bills that would help curb such behavior. (He also ridicules the ads that have popping up everywhere to whine about how unAmerican it would be!) Via the Guardian:

On Last Week Tonight, the host said that “our experiences on the internet are now dominated by a small handful of companies who are getting pretty used to throwing their weight around”.

He said that each of the big tech behemoths – Apple, Amazon and Google – act as “gatekeeper over a key channel of distribution” and end up “suppressing their competition so completely that we’d never actually know if someone else could do it better”.

There are two bills with bipartisan support that could curtail some of the excesses but Oliver said they need to pass in the next month or so.

He went into detail about how Google, Apple, and Amazon crush competitors. For instance, did you know if a business starts selling a popular item on Amazon, Amazon starts to make their own version and moves it further up in the search results?

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The two-faced former attorney general would have you believe he was a concerned bystander to Trump's coordination of the effort to overthrow the election.

I don't know how he kept a straight face during his testimony to the Jan. 6th select committee. Was he under oath?

Here’s Barr in June 2020 saying that mail-in voting “opens the floodgates of fraud,” even though there is no credible evidence of substantial mail-in voter fraud. Barr voted by mail himself in 2012 & 2019. https://t.co/iDkwHIaKfI

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) June 13, 2022

In July Barr attacked mail-in voting again, this time saying that foreign governments would themselves mail-in phony ballots. Again, mail-in voting has been used for decades w/o evidence or suggestion of this concern. https://t.co/O9EyP2aZky

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) June 13, 2022

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Mark Burns, a MAGA pastor running for Congress in South Carolina, took his party's attacks on the LGBTQ+ community to a disgusting level. Oh, and teachers, too. He wants them executed for treason, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't know the definition of treason. That's not very Jesus-y of him.

Via Right Wing Watch:

...declared that if he is elected, he will reinstate the House Un-American Activities Committee so that the government can "start executing people" guilty of treason. Who does Burns believe is guilty of treason? Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, whose supposed crime is potentially supporting some gun control measures and LGBTQ-supporting parents and teachers.

Burns was asked by guest host Lauren Witzke on "The Stew Peters Show" what he would do to fight "LGBTQ indoctrination" if he was elected to Congress, even though LGBTQ indoctrination isn't a thing. Burns bizarrely claimed that the LGBTQ agenda represents "a national security threat," so anyone that promotes it is guilty of treason and should be executed.

"I vote to make sure that those parents be held for child abuse," Burns said. "There is no such thing as trans kids, there are only abusive parents who are pushing that evil, evil sexual orientation onto their child's mind."

He seems nice. I'm sure he's a blast at parties, too.

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Off the Charts: How the United States recovered from the Pandemic Recession, in charts.

Rewire News: With the GOP about to create the equivalent of a Fugitive Womb Act, California is trying to offer a sanctuary to women seeking abortions.

Angry Bear: While the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at a 35 year low and U.S. oil production still below pre-pandemic levels, American refinery utilization is at its highest since 2019.

Mock, Paper, Scissors: Ohio wants schoolteachers to pack heat, not lunches.

Speaking of which, your quote of the day:
"If it's crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy." (NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, December 23, 2012)

Guest blogging Mike's Blog Round Up this week is Jon Perr from Perrspectives. Send your tips, recommendations, comments and angst to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

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During the January 6 hearing on Fox News yesterday, after each break from the proceedings, Fox News pundits tried to claim over and over again that the Select Committee was illegitimate because Republicans weren't on the committee at all.

That's a lie straight off, since Rep.Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, both lifelong Republicans, are on the committee.

Marie Harf, the lone truthful voice out of the six Fox News yakkers used for their panel, explained that fact, but it fell on deaf ears.

Instead of discussing the evidence put forth by the panel, Fox legal analyst Andy McCarthy kvetched that the Select Committee should have put Jim Jordan on the committee because Bill Barr's testimony was too solid for him to dismiss it.

"This underscored what a blunder it was for Speaker Pelosi to make this a one-sided hearing," Andy McCarthy said, as if it was Pelosi's sole decision to bar Republicans from the committee.

Republicans never wanted to participate.

It was Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy that refused to send any other Republican members over after Pelosi refused Jordan and Banks' participation since they were linked to the Trump team, voted against certifying the election, and were likely to be called as witnesses in the proceedings.

In fact, Speaker Pelosi approved five others to be part of the investigation.

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Everyone is having conniptions because Faux News is not covering the January 6th hearing the way they should. But no one mentions the part that it is because Fox is covering the stories that matter to real Americans. Stories like President Joe Biden's biggest scandal yet!

The problem is that Biden didn't send out his D-Day commemorative tweet until 8:45 pm on June 6th. Even worse is that Biden was in France, so the time difference means he actually tweeted it on June 7th! How is this man still walking free?!

No other president has ever done anything worse! Unless, of course, you count TFG. Oops.

Open thread below...

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Here's one common right-wing perspective on the president: a National Review piece by Rich Lowry titled "Biden Is an Old Man Overwhelmed by Events."

Here's another: a poll telling us that nearly 80% of Republicans believe Biden is a fiendish supervillain deliberately raising gas prices as part of a dastardly program of social engineering:

The survey asked, “Do you believe the Biden Administration is intentionally letting gas prices rise to make Americans use less fossil fuels?”

Most, 53 percent, said “yes,” they believe the Biden administration is allowing it to happen purposely to force Americans to use less fossil fuel. Another 39.6 percent, however, do not believe that is the case, and 7.4 percent are unsure.

Opinions are divided along party lines. Over three-quarters of Republicans, 77.3 percent, and 56.5 percent of independents believe the Biden administration is deliberately allowing gas prices to rise for those purposes. Most Democrats, 68.7 percent, disagree and do not believe the administration is doing so.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland is a very soft spoken man who is very very careful about what he says - especially when it comes to anything related to Donald Trump or the January 6th insurrection. That is why this 16 second clip says SO much. He confirmed that not only is HE watching the hearings, but his team of prosecutors are as well. By choice, or because they were instructed, that is a big statement. How would he KNOW they are watching unless it was coordinated or told to him?

Here is exactly what he said: "I am watching and I will be watching all the hearings, although I may not be able to watch all of it live but I'll be sure I'll be watching all of it. I can assure you the January 6th prosecutors are watching all the hearings."

I AM and I WILL. Maybe not LIVE, but I will be SURE to watch all of it. And he ASSURES us that the prosecutors are watching ALL of the hearings. That is a lot of strong words.

Let's see if it leads to action.

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