Fox News reports that on March 6, President Donald J. Trump hosted a college sports roundtable
to examine solutions to key challenges, including NCAA authority, name, image and likeness (NIL) issues; collecive bargaining; and governance concerns...Trump has been adamant about "saving college sports," even signing an executive order setting new restrictions on payments to college athletes in July.
In 2019, Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the NCAA's limits on education-related benefits violated federal law and was on Friday lustfully condemned by Mr. Trump He also had harsh words for the United States Supreme Court:
Compensation to college athletes, or "student-athletes" as they're often called, is a controversial and fairly complcated issue. However, Donald ripping anyone or any institution for not having "guts" is akin to him crtiticizng someone for being loud and belligerent or being sexually promiscuous.
Besides the war with Iran, the past week featured the firing by the President of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Well, not actually a dismissal as
On Thursday, President Trump on his Truth Social announced
that the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem has been removed and will
be reassign to be the Special Envoy for the Shield of Americas. That is the new security initiative that
President Trump will be announcing on Saturday in Florida.
The President could have removed Noem without reassigning her. Having removed the former South Dakota governor from her role as a Cabinet member, he might have told her to take a hike. And he could have done it in person, rather than from the safety and security provided him by his own social media platform. Instead, he put her in charge of something he made up, either on the fly or which he kept in reserve so that if an Administration official became an albatross, he could simply assign him or her there without any muss or fuss.
Noem should have been fired after she accused Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot to death by ICE agents in separate incidents during protests in Minneapolis, of having engaged in "domestic terrorism." The charges proved unfounded and provoked nationwide outrage, with even some Republican members of Congress uncomfortable with Noem's approach.
There were other good reasons to sack the DHS secretary, though she kept her job until GOP senator John Kennedy of Louisiana asked her during a committee hearing Thursday whether the President had asked her "to run" the ad campaign- costing $320 million- which was a thinly disguised effort to raise her political profile. She replied "we had that conversation, yes, before I was put into the position, screened, and confirmed and since then as well." Whether true or false, the President was not amused and took swift action. He acted promptly but- notwithstanding headlines which falsely stated that she was "fired"- not truly decisive.
O.K., good move, Mr. President! Corey Lewandowski's main (at present) squeeze, an awful depatmental head from the start, had become an embarrassment for Donald. But it should remind us that no matter the image, Donald Trump was, has been, and is, the guy Bill Maher would call a "whiny, little bitch."
He has me confused. Is Eric Erickson stupid, naive, or dishonest? Erickson says
The New York Times pushed out a story just the other day after Renee Good got killed by the ICE agent, a multi-angled camera view to insist it did not look like the ICE agent got hit.... CNN echoed The New York Times, claiming that it did not appear that he got hit.
We now have the medical records of the ICE agent. I believe his name is Jonathan Ross- internal bleeding in his hip area from the impact of the 3,000+ pound car hitting him. He was hit by Renee Good.
The New York Times pushed out a multi-angle camera view claiming Renee Good did not hit the ICE agent. But now we have the agent’s medical records.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally
shot Renee Good last week in Minneapolis, Jonathan Ross, suffered internal
bleeding to the torso following the incident, according to two U.S. officials
briefed on his medical condition.
It was unclear how extensive the bleeding was. The
Department of Homeland Security confirmed Ross' injury, but has not yet
responded to CBS News' requests for more information. This story will be
updated as we learn more.
Videos from the scene showed Ross walking away after the
incident.
Ross has not returned to work, one source said, but did not
say why.
Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, previously
acknowledged that Ross was taken to the hospital after the shooting and was
released the same day. She said he was recovering from his injuries, describing
him as an experienced law enforcement officer who believed he was defending
himself and fellow agents.
Not only is it unclear how extensive the bleeding was, it is unclear whether the injury was more extensive than a common, everyday household injury. As described by the Cleveland Clinic, this sounds a lot like internal bleeding:
“Ecchymosis” (pronounced “eh-chuh-mow-sis”) is the medical
term for a bruise. A bruise, or contusion, is skin discoloration from damaged,
leaking blood vessels underneath your skin. Even though there’s blood pooling
underneath your skin, you won’t have any external bleeding unless your skin
breaks open.
We don't know whether Ross was severely injured. However, we do know that "internal bleeding" can be no more serious than a bruise and that we cannot take remarks by anyone in this Administration about this incident as the gospel truth.
Soon after the shooting, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem called Renee Good a"domestic terrorist." She was not.
Vice President J.D. Vance called the victim a "deranged leftist." There is no evidence that she was deranged or in any way mentally or psychologically deficient.
President Trump almost instantly after the killing remarked that "the woman" was "very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer. She did not. (Good was leaving the scene when she eviently was shot three times and clearly did not "willfully and viciously" run anyone over.)
This Administration's record on the killing of Renee Good alread has been one of division and deceit, lying profusely to justify its inhumane and destructive policy toward both immigration and protestors. Nonetheless, we'll be able to determine definitively, hopefully, the extent of Agent Jonathan Ross' injury once his medical report is released. That may be released simultaneously with the release of the alleged shooting of presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, 2024 or release of the full Epstein files. When pigs fly.
As everyone from Ankara to Zagreb has learned by the time this post is read
Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a news
conference and handcuffed Thursday morning as Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem was speaking on recent immigration enforcement operations in the
lawmaker's hometown of Los Angeles.
The stunning altercation unfolded as Noem was speaking at a
federal building in Los Angeles, where days of protests have erupted in the
city's downtown area over the ICE raids. Padilla was removed from the room
after saying, "You insist on exaggerating." At least two men
identified as Secret Service agents by the Department of Homeland Security
approached Padilla, a Democrat, near a wall and pushed him through doors near
the rear of the room.
He could be heard saying, "I am Sen. Alex Padilla and I
have questions for the secretary" before he was removed, handcuffed and
held facedown on the floor in a hallway.
Details, and analysis, of the takedown of Senator Padilla are forthcoming. However, it is curious that
Scuffling with officers outside the room, he can be heard bellowing "Hands off!" He is later seen on his knees and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed in a hallway with several officers atop him.
In 2022, President Biden signed into law a measure which
directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to develop scenario-based training curricula (or identify existing curricula) that includes topics such as alternatives to the use of force, de-escalation tactics, and safely responding to an individual experiencing a mental, behavioral health, or suicidal crisis.
It's a safe bet that the Secret Service agents sitting atop Senator Padilla after he already was on his knees missed that training. In fairness, though, even Secret Service officers have to get their jollies somehow.
"I don't even know the Senator," Secretary Noem claimed after the incident. And yet immediately prior to the confrontation between the Senator and the SS (Secret Service) agents, the Homeland Security secretary, intentionally provocative, had threatened "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country."
So Kristi Noem did not know who this guy was but was convinced she was anointed to "liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership" it has. She will liberate a state whose Senator she did not recognize, even though he identified himself immediately after being first subdued by the law enforcement officers. Or as Stuart Stevens tweeted
So, let's understand this: the person whose job it is to make America safe by recognizing terrorist plots and threats before they happen is the same person who doesn't recognize a United States Senator?
Alex Padilla will survive. However, Ron Brownstein captured better than anyone on Thursday the context of the confrontation and the larger issues involved:
Trump admin has now arrested a mayor in Newark, judge in Mikwaukee, US Rep in NJ, union leader in LA. Now forcibly detain a US Senator. Also seize control of CA national guard from Dem governor. As @BrendanNyhan would put it: what would you say if you saw it in another country? https://t.co/LkUwX5o5U1
Putting aside Noem's specific claims, the primary the implication of the South Carolina governor is that as Covid-19 raged, Governor Walz tolerated dangerous riots (also known as the George Floyd protests) while the motorcycle rally in Sturgis posed little threat.
There is little evidence that the protests that erupted
after George Floyd’s death caused a significant increase in U.S. coronavirus
infections, according to public health experts.
If the protests had driven an explosion in cases, experts
say, the jumps would have started to become apparent within two weeks — and
perhaps as early as five days. But that didn’t happen in many cities with the
largest protests, including New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Washington,
D.C.
In what’s considered the first systematic look at the
question, a team of economists determined that only one of 13 cities involved
in the earliest wave of protests after Memorial Day had an increase that would
fit the pattern.
It was Phoenix, where experts say cases and hospitalizations
surged after a decision by Gov. Doug Ducey to end Arizona’s stay-at-home order
on May 15 and eased restrictions on businesses. Arizona residents who were
cooped up for six weeks flooded Phoenix-area bar districts, ignoring social
distancing guidelines.
In many cities, the protests actually seemed to lead to a
net increase in social distancing, as more people who did not protest decided
to stay off the streets, said that study’s lead author, Dhaval Dave of Bentley
University.
And in Minneapolis: seventeen days earlier, the conservative Daily Mail (notwithstanding its misleading headline) had reported
The health department set up four testing sites last week
specifically for those who had participated in the protests with more than
3,300 people undergoing tests.
Results from about 1,300 of the tests - or 40 percent -
carried out at those sites on June 9 and 10 have already come back and show
that 1.4 percent of protesters who were tested have been infected with
COVID-19.
The seven-day average of positive tests across Minnesota is
3.7 percent. It is higher because it is based on people who have been tested
because they are displaying symptoms.
By contrast, in Sturgis, South Dakota, the annual summertime motorcycle rally significantly increased Covid-19 infections, cases of hospitalization, and deaths. After the following years rally, in late August of 2021 the CDC explained
Eighty-six Minnesota COVID-19 cases were associated with the
South Dakota motorcycle rally; approximately one third of counties in Minnesota
reported at least one case epidemiologically linked to this event. These
findings highlight the far-reaching effects that gatherings in one area might
have on another area. The motorcycle rally was held in a neighboring state that
did not have policies regarding event size and mask use, underscoring the
implications of policies within and across jurisdictions. The findings suggest
that this rally not only had a direct impact on the health of attendees, but
also led to subsequent SARS-CoV-2 transmission among household, social, and
workplace contacts of rally attendees upon their return to Minnesota. Whole
genome sequencing results supported the finding of secondary and tertiary
transmission associated with this rally.
It shouldn't be surprising that the motorcycle rallies had a far greater impact upon Covid-19 transmission than did the black lives matter protests. Vox listed several reasons there were relatively few infections caused by the protests, a few of which contrast sharply with the South Dakota motorcycle rallies.
The George Floyd demonstrations were attended disproportionately by young people, likely younger than the Sturgis gathering. There was also more social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand washing among the racial justice people, who generally were more accepting of measures intended to slow spread of he coronavirus.
Moreover, the black lives matte protests were outdoors and most attendees marched, then returned home. But individuals going to Sturgis came from far and wide and did not show up and leave. They go to restaurants and bars and generally partake of the party-like atmosphere before returning home.
The governor of South Dakota criticizes the governor of Minnesota for his approach, which saved lives, to the once-in-a-hundred years outbreak. The irony is that, though dishonest, it is great politics. Under attack,
The irony is great: people came to Sturgis, some went back to Minneapolis and infected people and the governor of South Dakota down the governor Minnesota for his approach, which saved lives, to the once-in-a-hundred outbreak. Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and others associated with the federal government's response to Covid-19 have done little to defend themselves against charges from the right-wing. Democratic politicians, many of whom have been criticized by Republicans for their relatively aggressive approach to contain the effects of the coronavirus, have remained nearly completely silent.
Combine condemnation of a cautionary approach in the pandemic with an appeal to "freedoms" and there is the germ of a clever campaign against the Democratic presidential ticket. Fortunately, the Republican presidential ticket hasn't figured that out.
In a story that has grown old (as I have), South Dakota
governor Kristi
Noem has been on a media blitz for the past week promoting
her new book “No Going Back,” though the governor has been bombarded with
questions surrounding her decision to kill her 14-month-old dog, as detailed in
the book. Noem has faced condemnation from both sides of the aisle after The
Guardian reported that she writes in the book that she “hated” the “aggressive”
dog, who she says ruined a pheasant hunt and attacked her neighbor’s chickens.
When backlash to the story first surfaced, Noem openly
talked about and defended her decision to kill her dog, saying that “South
Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down” and
that she “chose the safety” of her children. Now, it seems Noem has grown tired
of defending her decision and claims that people are upset because “the fake
news” twisted her story.
At the beginning of the controversy, the shocked indignation of the people of the
greatest superpower in world history was captured when Inside Edition noted
"this story is leaving the entire nation pretty well aghast."
The horrified response to Cricket's demise
was reflected in the Fox News- Fox
News! interview in which Stuart Varney pressed Noem on the dog story, when she finally responded
“Enough, Stuart. This interview is ridiculous, which you are
doing right now,” Noem said. “So you need to stop. It is OK. It is. Let’s talk
about some real topics that Americans care about.”
Well, that was a buzzkill. For better or for worse- by which
I mean for the worst- that is a topic which Americans care about. Inside
Edition, perhaps the expert in all things trivial, stated that more than half
of households own one or more dogs, and shooting them to death is not a
pleasant thought.
Yet, Noem was on to something, even though her remark was
made only for self-interest. Of more significance regarding the governor of
South Dakota is the story behind the story when on Election Day of 2022 South Dakota voters
approved the expansion of Medicaid health insurance to tens
of thousands of low-income residents through a constitutional amendment.
The majority vote to support Constitutional Amendment D
removes South Dakota from a list of 12 states that have not expanded
eligibility for the government health insurance program to people earning up to
138% of the federal poverty level — currently about $18,800 for an individual
or $38,300 for a family of four.
The Republican-controlled Legislature had declined to expand
Medicaid eligibility under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act, and Gov.
Kristi Noem has opposed the idea.
The argument from Noem and other opponents of expansion, according to Politico at the time, had been that "the proposal would be
costly to the state in the future, would force the state to raise taxes and
would discourage able-bodied adults from securing well-paying jobs with
benefits." And so they would have refused $110 million from the federal
government in order to avoid giving health care to South Dakotans, although
Under the American Rescue Plan, which President Joe Biden
signed in 2021, Congress incentivized states to expand Medicaid by having the
federal government cover an extra 5 percent of the costs of the program — on
top of covering 90 percent of costs for the newly eligible population.
Forty-nine states, including South Dakota, are required to
balance their operating budget. Free money is hard to turn down, which the
legislature and Governor Noem were satisfied to do.
Donald Trump opened the GOP debate here by boasting about the size of his genitals. He responded to recent comments from Marco Rubio in which the Florida senator joked about the size of Trump’s hands and said “you know what they say about men with small hands.”
On the debate stage, Trump stretched his hands out for the audience to see – then insisted the suggestion that “something else must be small” was false.
“I guarantee you there’s no problem,” Trump said to howls from the audience at the Fox debate.
Trump twice taunted his rival with "Don't worry about it, Little Marco." No problem, though, because Rubio got back at actor Trump later in the debate. He knew how to ridicule Trump and cut him down to size. The senator called him "Big Donald." Way to cut him down to size, Marco!
Marco Rubio on Jon Karl being stunned when Rubio said he wants to be Trump's VP: "At the end of the day, I think the view is that the president doesn't even deserve to have a vice president." pic.twitter.com/X7B4vZBB3f
Oh, the humiliation. Rubio does have the advantage of being Latino and Trump hopes to be able to expand the inroads which polls indicate he has made with that demographic. However, he also is Cuban-America, and that brings into question his ability to appeal to Puerto Ricans in New York or more importantly, Mexican-Americans in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and North Carolina. Presumably, Rubio would help marginally in Florida but that has become a reasonably safe state for a GOP presidential nominee.
Moreover, Article II, Section 1 of the USA Constitution reads "The electors hall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves."
That would raise the possibility of four years of President Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Yet as entertaining as that would be, it wouldn't play out that way. Although a resident of Texas upon election as V.P. in 2000, Dick Cheney claimed to live in Wyoming, where he had previously resided and served as a U.S. Senator. And that was that. In the analogous situation, Trump simply would insist that he resides in New York, New York and that would be that.
Nonetheless, the nominee is about as likely to peg Rubio as his running mate as he is, say, Elizabeth Warren. Donald Trump needs a woman to round out the ticket, and there are several, such as Kristi Noem and Elise Stefanik, who would promise whatever necessary to do as requested. Then there are Nancy Mace, who might not, and Nikki Haley, who wouldn't, but would credibly remind everyone that a vote for Joe Biden as President is a vote for President Kamala Harris.
The ads touting Biden-Harris or ridiculing Trump-Rubio would practically write themselves- better yet, the V.P. nominee could write the ads. About a week before the "Little Marco" debate, Rubio had asserted "We cannot allow the conservative movement to be taken over by a con artist because the stakes are too high. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists," asserted the Florida senator about a week before he was dubbed "Little Marco." "Even Marco Rubio endorses Biden-Harris" would have a nice ring to it.
It's very unlikely that Trump would tap- uh, er, choose- Nikki Haley because he'd have to worry every time he turned his back on her. However, she, Mace, Noem, and Stefanik are only a few of the Republican women who would jump at the chance to be on the ticket, and would alleviate slightly the (accurate) image of Trump as a narrow-minded, misogynistic bigot.
They'd all be very bad in their own way. However, no matter what the lucky lady is expected to do as running mate, it will be hard for her to define pathetic as thoroughly as has Marco Rubio.
It was twelve months ago but Republicans, characterized by
political ADHD (this today, that tomorrow, something else, the day after)
shouldn't be allowed to forget this. From The Washington Post at the time:
When Michigan Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow stood
on the chamber floor to take on a Republican colleague who had accused her of
wanting to sexually groom children, she was denouncing not just an isolated
incident, but an onslaught of GOP attacks on the LGBTQ community....
The rapid escalation in public support for the LGBTQ
community’s rights in recent years had quieted much of the blatant homophobia
in the nation’s political discourse. But, in recent weeks, Republicans have
reverted to verbal and legal assaults on the community, sometimes employing
baseless tropes that suggest children are being groomed or recruited by
defenders of gay rights. The efforts ahead of the midterm elections are
intended to rile up the Republican base and fill the campaign coffers of its
candidates, without offering evidence that any Democrat had committed a
repugnant crime....
In Michigan, McMorrow had been one of three Democrats to
walk out of an invocation that GOP state Sen. Lana Theis gave on the Senate
floor a week ago, during which she prayed for children “under attack” from
“forces.” After the walkout, Theis accused McMorrow by name in a fundraising
email of wanting to “groom and sexualize kindergartners.”
Theis and McMorrow got into it on the Senate floor, after
which
Theis did not respond to a request for a comment. But her
characterization was in keeping with other attempts to portray Democratic
supporters of gay rights as, at minimum, aiding pedophiles.
The new thrust counters the decision by most Republican
politicians in recent years to largely avoid the subject of LGBTQ rights given
widespread support from Americans. The party in 2004 had mounted multiple state
campaigns against same-sex marriage in an effort to boost turnout for President
George W. Bush’s reelection effort, but the nation’s views have changed sharply
since that time.
Republicans recently have used language similar to Theis’s
to attack their critics who speak out against the ramped-up efforts to restrict
protections for LGBTQ youth. They have specifically referenced the notion of
“grooming,” which is used to denote adults sexualizing children.
Several weeks ago, as Florida Republicans were pushing
legislation to ban discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in
classrooms up to third grade, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina
Pushaw, made an audacious claim on Twitter about the measure Democrats referred
to as the “don’t say gay” bill.
“If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably
a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.
Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the
rules,” Pushaw said. In response to a request for comment, Pushaw said
Wednesday that she had not singled out LGBTQ people as groomers “because
groomers can be of any orientation or identity.”
Critics responded in outrage while other Republicans made
similar accusations.
“The Democrats are the party of pedophiles. The Democrats
are the party of princess predators from Disney,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
(R-Ga,) said in an interview she posted on Twitter. “The Democrats are the
party of elementary school teachers, trying to transition their
elementary-school aged children and convince them they’re a different gender.
This is the party of their identity, and their identity is the most disgusting,
evil, horrible things happening in our country.”
The language echoes that of QAnon conspiracy theorists, who
Greene regularly endorsed during her time as a conservative provocateur before
she ran for Congress. QAnon followers believed powerful Democrats were running
a secret child sex trafficking ring and that President Donald Trump would
expose it.
“We’re seeing the recycling of tropes; there are go-to
tropes that people use and this notion that somehow a child being taught in
school is “grooming” them to have a particular sexual orientation,” said Sharon
McGowan, legal director of Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ advocacy
organization. “I do think we saw a complete disregard for some of the norms
during the Trump era, there was a brazenness packaged as, ‘I’m not afraid to
say the hard truths;' now they’re wearing the more outrageous, more offensive
as a badge of pride.”
This "grooming" thing always had the small of
psychological projection and now the conservative New York Post unironically reports
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem raised eyebrows Friday when
she said that her granddaughter, who is just a year old, already has a shotgun
and a rifle.
Speaking at the annual National Rifle Association convention
in Indianapolis, the conservative firebrand told the crowd that her
granddaughter, “Little Miss Addie” is already “set up” for her future with the
weapons — and a pony.
“Little Miss Addie, who is almost two, and Branch who’s just
a few months old, they have brought us so much joy. They’ve brought us
purpose,” Noem told the crowd, video of her remarks shared on social media
shows.
“’Now Addie, who you know — soon will need them [guns]. I
wanna reassure you, she already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle and
she’s got a little pony named Sparkles too. So the girl is set up,” the
conservative added.
Well, isn't that just the sweetest thing, especially coming
from arguably the leading candidate to join Donald Trump on a presidential
ticket in 2024. Nor was it merely performative and/or an effort to curry favor
with the Republican Party's most deadly interest groups because
Noem, a staunch supporter of gun rights, took time during
her 24-minute speech to sign an executive order for her state to “further
protect the 2nd Amendment rights of South Dakotans.”
The order would prohibit government agencies from
contracting with businesses that discriminate against “a firearm-related entity,” according to KELThis isn't going to become the face of G.O.P. all by itself,
nor even with the legacy media's help.
“The girl is set up.” Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem reveals her one-year-old granddaughter has a shotgun and a rifle. How cute. pic.twitter.com/NgjYxuO8iV
This should become the face of the Republican Party and it
has to be Democratic officials who maintain, loudly and clearly, that
Republican politicians such as Kristi Noem are the very backbone of her Party.
