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McConnell's SCOTUS threat could backfire as Dems turbocharge Biden's judicial confirmations: report
June 14, 2021
On Monday, POLITICO reported that the new threat by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to deny President Joe Biden any Supreme Court nominations if he regains control of the Senate in 2022 could backfire in a big way — by supercharging Democratic efforts to seat as many judges as possible before the midterms can take place.
"McConnell ... might be doing his opponents a favor," wrote Elana Schor. "That's because Democrats have spent springtime searching for a breakthrough on a long list of White House priorities, from infrastructure to policing to voting rights, with little success so far. The one front that Democratic senators seem to feel genuinely good about ... is their progress on judicial confirmations."
According to the report, "Democrats inherited fewer vacancies on the federal bench (82) than former President Donald Trump and McConnell did (112). But they're making decent headway so far, with 19 nominees tapped by President Joe Biden this year and several already confirmed, including the first Muslim in the federal judiciary, Zahid Quraishi of New Jersey." Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who controlled the Judiciary Committee during the first part of the Trump administration, told POLITICO Democrats could "easily" match Trump's confirmation rate.
The big question, the report noted, is whether Biden will have a Supreme Court vacancy to fill before the midterms.
"If [Justice Stephen] Breyer can be coaxed to make the decision that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg didn't back in 2014, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — confirmed tonight to Attorney General Merrick Garland's seat on the D.C. Court of Appeals — is waiting in the wings as a natural successor," said the report. "She'd be the first Black woman tapped for the nation's highest court, fulfilling a Biden campaign promise, if she's chosen."
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Pickup trucks blared their horns in downtown Bozeman, MT on Monday as they rallied for the former president on his 75th birthday.
Trump lost the county by 7% points in December, but as has been happening across the country, some of the former reality TV show stars fans refuse to accept the fact he decisively lost the 2020 election.
They have been emboldened by Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who voted with the insurrectionists to overturn the election results following the January 6th insurrection.
One Trump supporter flew the flag of the racist traitors of the Confederacy.C
Confederate flag in Bozeman, MT.Bob Brigham.
Another participant flew the flag of the Three Percenters militia group:
Three percenters militia group.Bob Brigham
And another flew the flag of the QAnon conspiracy theory:
QAnon cultist in Bozeman, MT.Bob Brigham.
QAnon pickups in Bozeman, MT.Bob Brigham
Many pushed the lie that "Trump won" the 2020 election:
Towed vehicle with a false "Trump won" message.Bob Brigham
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Louie Gohmert gave $5,500 to Holocaust-denying preacher — then claimed it was an accident
June 14, 2021
On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) donated $5,500 to virulently anti-gay and anti-Semitic pastor Steve Anderson — and when caught, claimed the whole thing was an unfortunate mixup.
According to William Bredderman, "Team Gohmert claims it hired a Christian singer named Steve Amerson from Granada HIlls, California, but accidentally reported to the Federal Election Commission that the cash went to the Tempe, Arizona address of the Faithful Word Baptist Church, led by the infamous Pastor Steve Anderson."
Anderson, whose church is part of the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist movement, is known for several abhorrent views, the report noted.
"Faithful Word Church calls for punishing homosexuality with the death penalty in the doctrinal statement published on its webpage," said the report. "But that demand seems mild compared to the seething rhetoric Anderson has unleashed against the LGBTQ community: in a 2014 video posted to his now-deplatformed YouTube account, he declared "'if you executed the homos, like God recommends, you wouldn't have all this AIDS running around.' In 2016, he applauded the the mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, asserting 'there's 50 less pedophiles in this world.'"
But Anderson's views go much further — he is also virulently anti-Semitic and denies the Holocaust happened.
"Anderson ... has demonstrated a particular animosity toward Jewish people, as evidenced in titles of the sermons listed on his IMDB page, which include 'The Jews Are Our Enemies,' 'The Jews Killed Jesus,' 'Unbelieving Jews Are Under God's Wrath,' 'Jews Worship a Female God Named 'Shekinah,'' and 'Jewish Synagogue = Synagogue of Satan,'" said the report. "He has also, as the Anti-Defamation League noted in a 2015 report, propagated false claims that millions of Jews were not gassed and cremated in Nazi concentration camps during World War II." He also published a video calling Dr. Martin Luther King, "Marxist Lucifer King," a "false prophet," a "sexual pervert," and a "Communist tool."
This comes shortly after Gohmert landed in the news for demanding to know if the U.S. Forest Service can change the Earth's orbit to fight climate change.
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