When he was under investigation by the feds for human trafficking, Gaetz hinted he was going to resign and prepare for a career as a conservative media agitator.
Well he is still in Congress. Doing stuff that has nothing to do with his constituents.
Floridians should take notice that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) of Florida's 1st Congressional District is probably one of the most ineffective members in the state.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. George Santos (R-NY), Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) are the most ineffective lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
All they do is constantly drive other members crazy with their pathetic showboating and click bait antics. They should be primaried but it is going to be challenging to defeat them.
Cause if we get rid of one of them, another one will take their place. Think about it!
Gaetz spends his Memorial Day weekend guest hosting on Newsmax. Instead of working on raising the debt ceiling, passing legislation through committees, hosting town halls to discuss how the 1st Congressional District is benefiting from his role as a representative, he does a lousy cable news program.
The White House and House Republicans have been locked in a standoff over debt ceiling negotiations as the deadline to raise the debt ceiling looms over the country. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier this week that Congress has until June 1 to raise the debt ceiling before the country defaults on its bills.
Gaetz like many House Republicans are telling House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to not cave to President Joe Biden when it comes to the debt ceiling. He stated if the Republicans cave to pressure, they risk losing. He vows to challenge McCarthy's speakership if the Republicans lose their advantage.
On top of that, he admitted that this debt ceiling issue is worth the partisan challenge.
Holding our country's economy hostage is a key strategy to the Republicans.
This is why he isn't doing his job. He too busy pandering. He and Rep. Chip Roy both opposed McCarthy's speakership. They also share a difference in 2024 candidates.
Roy endorsed Florida governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary while Gaetz remains a loyal backer of Washed Up 45.
Here's some of the noise from this insufferable lawmaker.
They blame Biden for Republican constantly obstructing governance.
The junk food media continues to blame President Joe Biden for Republicans refusing to raise the debt ceiling. This happens every time Democrats are in the White House.
Why can't both sides do their jobs?
Frequent talking point from the far left and the agitators in cable news. It is like Congress is the legislative body, the president is the executive operator and the Supreme Court is the judicial authority. When you have one body of government ran by far right extremists, a court ruling in favor of far right extremists and a society driven by partisan hacks telling these sheep to hate people for no fucking reason.
As Congress leaves for Memorial Day weekend, they leave with nothing accomplished.
The economists, world banks, ceditors, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, China, Russia and the world leaders allied to the U.S. are watching this.
Washed Up 45 is proud of the Republicans holding firm on their pledge to not raise the debt ceiling without passing spending cuts. The former president has raise the debt ceiling by $8 trillion and there was little resistance from Republicans.
Now that a Democrat is in control, now all of sudden Republicans want to stop reckless spending.
The president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are closing in on a deal that would raise the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling for two years while capping spending on most items, a U.S. official told Reuters.
The deal, which is not final, would increase funding for discretionary spending on military and veterans while essentially holding non-defense discretionary spending at current year levels, the official said, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about internal discussions.
The White House is considering scaling back its plan to boost funding at the Internal Revenue Service to hire more auditors and target wealthy Americans, the official said.
A second U.S. official said IRS funding is an open issue, but the main thrust is ensuring the agency executes the president's priorities, even if there is a small haircut or funding is moved around.
The final deal would specify the total amount the government could spend on discretionary programs like housing and education, according to a person familiar with the talks, but not break that down into individual categories. The two sides are just $70 billion apart on a total figure that would be well over $1 trillion, according to another source.
The two sides met virtually on Thursday, the White House said.
Republican negotiators have backed off plans to increase military spending while cutting non-defense spending and instead backed a White House push to treat both budget items more equally, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters.
Biden said they still disagreed over where the cuts should fall.
"I don't believe the whole burden should fall back to middle class and working-class Americans," he told reporters.
House Speaker McCarthy told reporters Thursday evening the two sides have not reached a deal. "We knew this would not be easy," he said.
It is unclear precisely how much time Congress has left to act. The Treasury Department was warned that it could be unable to cover all its obligations as soon as June 1, but on Thursday said it would sell $119 billion worth of debt that will come due on that date, suggesting to some market watchers that it was not an iron-clad deadline.
"They have suggested in the past that they would not announce auctions that they did not believe they had the means to settle," Gennadiy Goldberg, senior rates strategist at TD Securities in New York. "So I do think that's a positive note."
Any agreement will have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate. That could be tricky, as some right-wing Republicans and many liberal Democrats said they were upset by the prospect of compromise.
"I don't think everybody's going to be happy at the end of the day. That's not how the system works," McCarthy said.
The House adjourned on Thursday afternoon for a week-long break, and the Senate is not in session. Lawmakers have been told to be ready to come back to vote if a deal is reached.
The deal would only set broad spending outlines, leaving lawmakers to fill in the blanks in the weeks and months to come.
Biden has resisted Republican proposals to stiffen work requirements for anti-poverty programs and loosen oil and gas drilling rules, according to Democratic Representative Mark Takano.
Representative Kevin Hern, who leads the powerful Republican Study Committee, told Reuters a deal was likely by Friday afternoon.
If the left is intolerant to other voices, why are those Republicans quick to ban books, abortions, gender transition care, drag shows and migrants?
Republicans are literally playing with the American economy by refusing to pass a resolution to raise the debt ceiling. The House of Representatives in control of the Republican has been ineffective in getting things done. Instead of working on reducing inflation, they have passed culture war legislation and vow to repeal President Joe Biden's signature accomplishments.
Republicans are embracing white supremacy. This is the neo fascism that Washed Up 45 soiled into the mind of the Americans. They continue to push forward an agenda that goes against the generations of accomplishments for American greatness.
Ironic, "Make America Great Again" is now a symbol of neo fascism.
Anheuser-Busch, The North Face and now Target are part of the culture wars.
Target has credible threats of potential violence towards employees and their shoppers.
Due to the threats, Target had pulled its Pride products from the shelves.
Charlie Kirk, Chaya Raichik, Candace Owens and Moms for Liberty the extremists succeed in their quest to moral panic America into erasing people of color, migrants and those in the LGBTQ community.
Pulled off the shelves.
The retail giant said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday that it was committed to celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community but was withdrawing some items over threats that were "impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being" on the job.
"Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior," the company said.
In June, Pride month and Juneteenth. The Department of Homeland Security warns their will be potential threats to these events.
Reuters reported that the company is removing from stores and its website products created by the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which offers some products featuring spooky, gothic imagery, such as skulls and Satan, in pastels colors.
Conservative activists and media have also bashed Target in recent days for selling "tuck-friendly" women's swimsuits that allow some trans women to hide their genitalia, the Associated Press reported.
Twitter Spaces had malfunctioned when Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 run for president. As with most Republicans, they often fuck up at the gate. It is given an easy play for Washed Up 45.
Since he started Truth Social, he avoided Twitter despite Elon Musk reinstating his account. He has hinted he may return to it, but it would rile up the investors who put millions into his DTMG.
It was catnip for President Joe Biden who actually trolled on Twitter.
DeSantis, the controversial Florida governor who declared his campaign on taking on the "woke mob" and defending himself from the Washed Up 45 onslaught said he's not a loser. He said that he's won his last election in a landslide and Florida has become the place for people.
Twitter was supposed to help bring DeSantis the necessary attention. It failed.
Musk wants to turn Twitter into a “digital town square,” but his much-publicized Twitter Spaces kickoff event, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announcing his run for president, struggled with technical glitches and a near half-hour delay Tuesday.
The billionaire Twitter owner said the problems were due to “straining” servers because so many people were trying to listen to the audio-only event. But even at their highest, the number of listeners listed topped out at around 420,000, far from the millions of viewers that televised presidential announcements attract.
“There’s so many people,” said host David Sacks amid the disruptions. “We’ve got so many people here that we are kind of melting the servers, which is a good sign.”
After it concluded without further disruptions, Musk, DeSantis and Sacks played off the event as a success, with Sacks quipping “it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish — and we finished really strong.”
Musk a day earlier dubbed the event a historic first for Twitter, saying it would be “the first time something like this is happening on social media.” The webcast was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET but nearly 30 minutes passed with users getting kicked off, hearing microphone feedback and enduring other technical problems before it finally began. The audience remained under 500,000.
DeSantis opponents had a field day with the delayed announcement.
“Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!” said Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Washed Up 45.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, tweeted, “We had more people join when I played Among Us,” referencing the popular video game.
Twitter has suffered a host of technical issues since Musk took over and fired or laid off roughly 80% of its staff — including engineers tasked with keeping the site running. A day before the DeSantis event, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in London, Musk expressed confidence about Twitter’s future and said he is “going to start adding people to the company” but gave no further details.
Musk bought Twitter last fall for $44 billion. Since then, he has upended the platform’s verification system, loosened its content moderation policies in line with his views as a “free speech absolutist,” spread misinformation and engaged with far-right figures, all the while working to attract jittery advertisers back to the platform to turn it profitable. His grand vision, he has said repeatedly, is to eventually turn Twitter into an “ everything app ” for everyone — a digital town square where people can hear from world leaders and politicians without the need for traditional media as a go-between.
But he seems to mainly be courting conservatives and Republicans lately, referring to Democrats and liberals as infected by the “woke mind virus” and reinstating extremist accounts that were banned by Twitter’s previous administration.
Wednesday’s campaign launch event with DeSantis continued the trend — though it remains to be seen whether the platform can become a go-to destination for mainstream politicians when it continues to show evidence of instability. For instance, the word “DeSaster” was trending on Twitter Wednesday evening as users mocked the botched campaign launch.
In the world of traditional media and politics, a glitchy half-hour delay and an audience in the hundreds of thousands rather than millions, Wednesday’s Twitter Spaces event might look like a failure. But in Silicon Valley, failure is often spun as positive, even essential in developing new products and improving existing ones. Twitter Spaces — which Twitter launched in 2020 to compete with the then-popular audio chat site Clubhouse — is generally not used for audiences in the hundreds of thousands, so in some ways it was not a surprise that the event was marred with technical problems.
“It’s much worse for DeSantis than it is for Musk,” said Jo-Ellen Pozner, a business professor at Santa Clara University, noting that just a month ago Musk’s SpaceX launched a rocket that exploded minutes after its launch from Texas. After the explosion, Musk called it “an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months” in a tweet.
“It is clearly a difficult situation for DeSantis, who wants to project competence, who wants to forestall criticism,” she said. “Musk has an easier out by just saying that ‘this was the first time we tried it, it didn’t work out perfectly, but next time we’ll do much better,’ in the classic Silicon Valley approach to failing fast and learning more.”
Pozner said it remains an “open question” how Twitter is going to be valued as a broad digital platform down the line.
“I think will depend on, you know, how he and the top management react to this and how they spin it,” she said.
After DeSantis logged off, Musk and Sacks extended an open invitation to any other presidential candidate who wants to do a Twitter Spaces event. Whether or not they get any takers could signal what the future holds for Twitter as a “public square.”
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Barack Obama and various entertainers pay homage to a Queen who persevere through segregation in rural Tennessee, to an abusive husband and becoming an iconic singer. She was the "Queen of Rock 'n Roll."
Tina Turner passed away at the age of 83 in Switzerland.
Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ’70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” has died at 83.
Turner died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, according to her manager. She became a Swiss citizen a decade ago.
Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a superstar on her own in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on their way down, and remained a top concert draw for years after.
“How do we say farewell to a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world?” Angela Bassett, who played Turner in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” said in a statement.
“Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to carve out a space in rock and roll for herself and for others who look like her, Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like.
With admirers ranging from Mick Jagger to Beyoncé to Mariah Carey, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” was one of the world’s most popular entertainers, known for a core of pop, rock and rhythm and blues favorites: “Proud Mary,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and the hits she had in the ’80s, among them “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”
Her trademarks included a growling contralto that might smolder or explode, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021 ) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey among those praising her. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.
Until she left her husband and revealed their back story, she was known as the voracious on-stage foil of the steady-going Ike, the leading lady of the “Ike and Tina Turner Revue.” Ike was billed first and ran the show, choosing the material, the arrangements, the backing singers. They toured constantly for years, in part because Ike was often short on money and unwilling to miss a concert. Tina Turner was forced to go on with bronchitis, with pneumonia, with a collapsed right lung.
Other times, the cause of her misfortunes was Ike himself.
As she recounted in her memoir, “I, Tina,” Ike began hitting her not long after they met, in the mid-1950s, and only grew more vicious. Provoked by anything and anyone, he would throw hot coffee in her face, choke her, or beat her until her eyes were swollen shut, then rape her. Before one show, he broke her jaw and she went on stage with her mouth full of blood.
Terrified both of being with Ike and of lasting without him, she credited her emerging Buddhist faith in the mid-1970s with giving her a sense of strength and self-worth and she finally left in early July 1976. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue was scheduled to open a tour marking the country’s bicentennial when Tina snuck out of their Dallas hotel room, with just a Mobil credit card and 36 cents, while Ike slept. She hurried across a nearby highway, narrowly avoiding a speeding truck, and found another hotel.
“I looked at him (Ike) and thought, ‘You just beat me for the last time, you sucker,’” she recalled in her memoir.
Turner was among the first celebrities to speak candidly about domestic abuse, becoming a heroine to battered women and a symbol of resilience to all. Ike Turner did not deny mistreating her, although he tried to blame Tina for their troubles. When he died, in 2007, a representative for his ex-wife said simply: “Tina is aware that Ike passed away.”
Ike and Tina fans knew little of this during the couple’s prime. The Turners were a hot act for much of the 1960s and into the ’70s, evolving from bluesy ballads such as “A Fool in Love” and “It’s Going to Work Out Fine” to flashy covers of “Proud Mary” and “Come Together” and other rock songs that brought them crossover success.
They opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966 and 1969, and were seen performing a lustful version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” in the 1970 Stones documentary “Gimme Shelter.” Bassett and Laurence Fishburne gave Oscar-nominated performances in “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” based on “I, Tina,” but she would say that reliving her years with Ike was so painful she couldn’t bring herself to watch the movie.
Ike and Tina’s reworking of “Proud Mary,” originally a tight, mid-tempo hit for Creedence Clearwater Revival, helped define their sexual aura. Against a background of funky guitar and Ike’s crooning baritone, Tina began with a few spoken words about how some people wanted to hear songs that were “nice and easy.”
“But there’s this one thing,” she warned, “you see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy.
“We always do it nice — and rough.”
But by the end of the 1970s, Turner’s career seemed finished. She was 40 years old, her first solo album had flopped and her live shows were mostly confined to the cabaret circuit. Desperate for work, and money, she even agreed to tour in South Africa when the country was widely boycotted because of its racist apartheid regime.
Rock stars helped bring her back. Rod Stewart convinced her to sing “Hot Legs” with him on “Saturday Night Live” and Jagger, who had openly borrowed some of Turner’s on-stage moves, sang “Honky Tonk Women” with her during the Stones’ 1981-82 tour. At a listening party for his 1983 album “Let’s Dance,” David Bowie told guests that Turner was his favorite singer.
“She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous,” Jagger tweeted Wednesday. “She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.”
More popular in England at the time than in the U.S., she recorded a raspy version of “Let’s Stay Together” at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London. By the end of 1983, “Let’s Stay Together” was a hit throughout Europe and on the verge of breaking in the states. An A&R man at Capitol Records, John Carter, urged the label to sign her up and make an album. Among the material presented was a reflective pop-reggae ballad co-written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle and initially dismissed by Tina as “wimpy.”
“I just thought it was some old pop song, and I didn’t like it,” she later said of “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”
Turner’s “Private Dancer” album came out in May 1984, sold more than eight million copies and featured several hit singles, including the title song and “Better Be Good To Me.” It won four Grammys, among them record of the year for “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” the song that came to define the clear-eyed image of her post-Ike years.
“People look at me now and think what a hot life I must have lived — ha!” she wrote in her memoir.
Even with Ike, it was hard to mistake her for a romantic. Her voice was never “pretty,” and love songs were never her specialty, in part because she had little experience to draw from. She was born in Nutbush, Tennessee in 1939 and would say she received “no love” from either her mother or father. After her parents separated, she moved often around Tennessee and Missouri, living with various relatives. She was outgoing, loved to sing and as a teenager would check out the blues clubs in St. Louis, where one of the top draws was Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Tina didn’t care much for his looks the first time she saw him, at the Club Manhattan.
“Then he got up onstage and picked up his guitar,” she wrote in her memoir. “He hit one note, and I thought, ‘Jesus, listen to this guy play.’”
Tina soon made her move. During intermission at an Ike Turner show at the nearby Club D’Lisa, Ike was alone on stage, playing a blues melody on the keyboards. Tina recognized the song, B.B. King’s “You Know I Love You,” grabbed a microphone and sang along. As Tina remembered, a stunned Ike called out “Giirrlll!!” and demanded to know what else she could perform. Over her mother’s objections, she agreed to join his group. He changed her first name to Tina, inspired by the comic book heroine Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and changed her last name by marrying her, in 1962.
In rare moments of leniency from Ike, Tina did enjoy success on her own. She added a roaring lead vocal to Phil Spector’s titanic production of “River Deep, Mountain High,” a flop in the U.S. when released in 1966, but a hit overseas and eventually a standard. She was also featured as the Acid Queen in the 1975 film version of the Who’s rock opera “Tommy.” More recent film work included “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” and a cameo in “What’s Love Got to Do with It.”
Turner had two sons: Craig, with saxophonist Raymond Hill; and Ronald, with Ike Turner. (Craig Turner was found dead in 2018 of an apparent suicide). In a memoir published later in 2018, “Tina Turner: My Love Story,” she revealed that she had received a kidney transplant from her second husband, former EMI record executive Erwin Bach.
Turner’s life seemed an argument against marriage, but her life with Bach was a love story the younger Tina would not have believed possible. They met in the mid-1980s, when she flew to Germany for record promotion and he picked her up at the airport. He was more than a decade younger than her — “the prettiest face,” she said of him in the HBO documentary — and the attraction was mutual. She wed Bach in 2013, exchanging vows at a civil ceremony in Switzerland.
“It’s that happiness that people talk about,” Turner told the press at the time, “when you wish for nothing, when you can finally take a deep breath and say, ‘Everything is good.’”
___
Associated Press Writer Hilary Fox contributed to this report.
Florida looks like a penis and its governor is a dick.
It's official, Florida governor Ron DeSantis is entering the 2024 presidential race and it will be Washed Up 45's most formidable opponent.
In 2022, Ron DeSantis easily beaten former governor and congressman Charlie Crist. It formally took Florida off the swing state table. Florida now became the state where Republicans rule 3 to 1 in legislation. It lost one major city to a Democrat the past week.
The state Republicans and its governor been at odds with Disney, Florida orange growers, people of color and immigrants. The governor is the "King of Culture Wars."
He will be endorsed by Elon Musk, the controversial billionaire who is owner of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter.
The 44-year-old Republican governor plans to announce his decision in an online conversation with Musk, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the announcement publicly.
The audio-only event will be streamed on Twitter Spaces beginning at 6 p.m. EDT. DeSantis will follow up with a round of prime-time appearances on conservative programs, including Fox and Mark Levin’s radio show.
DeSantis gave no hint as to his plans during a meeting of the state clemency board in Tallahassee on Wednesday, where he granted several pardons to former prisoners charged mostly with drug-related crimes decades ago.
“You are what the country needs,” one man said after getting his pardon.
A smiling DeSantis chuckled and thanked him.
Right off the bat, he touted how he ended "wokeism" in Florida, he will make the Supreme Court a 7-2 majority if he was president.
By day’s end, DeSantis planned to join the crowded Republican contest to decide whether the party will move on from Trump in 2024 as it works to take the White House from President Joe Biden.
Beyond Trump, those already in the GOP field include former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to announce his candidacy in the coming weeks.
DeSantis has embraced Trump’s combative style and many of his policies, but casts himself as a younger and more electable version of the former president.
In choosing Twitter to launch his candidacy, DeSantis is taking a page out of the playbook that helped turn businessman-TV celebrity Trump into a political star.
The timing of DeSantis’ long-expected announcement has been shrouded, with various iterations of plans being leaked over the past few days. Some close to him suspected that he was providing conflicting information about the timing and location to root out leakers. Others believe he changed his initial preparations after news reports came out about them.
Detroit and Baltimore fall behind Memphis as the largest cities with a Black population.
Mayor Mike Duggan slams the noise. He is tired of Republicans and far right need to focus on fixing America's problems and stop bashing his city.
Detroit has now a population of 607,000 down from 639,000. Previously 709,000 in 2010, the largest city in Michigan had seen population decline by 20%.
Detroit’s population decline has been evident in every census since the city’s peak in 1950, when 1.8 million people lived there. Detroit was home to 639,111 residents in 2020, according to new data released Thursday, a 10.5% decrease since the last count was taken in 2010.
Duggan said he believes the census undercounted the city’s population “by at least 10%” in a statement. Duggan reached his figure by comparing the number of DTE customers with the number of occupied households recorded by the Census.
“At a minimum, the Census somehow failed to count 25,000 occupied houses with running electricity,” Duggan said in a press release. “We will be pursuing our legal remedies to get Detroit an accurate count.”
Census Bureau officials vouched for the accuracy of the count during a Thursday press conference, but civil rights groups and politicians have expressed concern that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the outcome.
Population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau last Thursday show that at 621,056 residents, Memphis has a larger population than Detroit's 620,376 as of July 1, 2022. The most recent census survey data showed both cities were majority-Black cities with Detroit home to a 76% Black population and Memphis to a 63% Black population as of 2021.
Man loses arm after being attacked by an alligator
Google Blogger is experiencing more problems. So by 2024, it will come to an end with me and this product. Blogger is supposedly being retired but it's rumor.
Anyway, I will take smaller steps to posting. I won't use too many images and limit readings to at least two minutes to five minutes.
Alligator bites man's arm off after he decided to relieve himself in Florida.
Man grateful to be alive after he was attacked by a 10 foot long alligator in Fort Myers.
He was impatient waiting in line at a bar so he decided to urinate near a body of water.
The alligator was lurking nearby.
ABC News reports the man, Jordan Rivera, 23, was at Banditos Bar in Port Charlotte, Florida, late Saturday night. Deterred by the long line to the bathroom, Rivera told ABC affiliate WZVN that he decided to venture to a nearby pond instead.
The alligator tripped him. The animal took an invasive step to attack the victim.
"I just saw the lake, just gonna go over there and take a little pee or whatnot," he said. "Something happened where I either tripped…and ended up in the water, and that's literally the last thing I remember."
Hello.
The pond near where Rivera fell was also inhabited by a ten-foot alligator, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Rivera does not recall the next series of events that brought him to a local hospital, but he was missing his right arm when he woke up.
FWC officials, as well as first responders from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office and EMS, responded to a report early Sunday morning of a man suffering "significant injuries" after being bitten by an alligator, according to the FWC.
Rivera is still recovering in the hospital with his arm amputated, but he is looking back on the incident optimistically.
"I didn't lose my life, lost an arm," he said. "It's not the end of the world."
The animal was euthanized.
It infuriates me. Back in the slave days as well as the Jim Crow era, white extremists would kidnap Black babies, toddlers and small children. They end up tying them to ropes, smoother them with bacon grease and dangle them around a swamp in the Deep South.
Alligators, cougars and bears would see the crying child and they would maul the child and eat them. The white extremist would end up grabbing the alligator, cougar or bear when they get entangled in the rope. They would skin the animals for clothes and food.
Alligators are known in states like Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina as well as parts of Tennessee and North Carolina. They are dangerous animals.
Can we do a Darwin Award for the most stupidest people on the planet?
You can't fix stupid!
You can't change minds!
You are completely trapped in stupid.
You are wrapped and emboldened in stupid.
Again, why do white people always treat wild animals like they're domesticated?
I would never touch a wild animal.
Alas, some people think that animals are timid when you're petting them. Nope.
While rare, alligator attacks do happen and many of the victims are close to the water or have pets within a sight of the reptile. If you get too close to the reptile, you are likely a victim of stupidity. On land, an alligator is fast. In the water, an alligator is deadly.
Why do people always seem to not be aware of their surroundings when they live in Florida?
Especially when you live in a community where water is close by... I mean are they clueless or just stupid?
Once the animal gets a hold of a prey, it's rare that an animal will escape without losing a body part.
It's the unfortunate cause and effect of animals and people.
I've said it before and I stand by what I say: "Wild animals are......well you know!"
If you want to be a thrill seeker, you might want to get life insurance.
To escape an alligator in the water if possible, punch its eyes or put something in its nose. Don't turn your back on an alligator. If you're on land run backwards in a zig zag position. An alligator does not want to waste its time trying to catch a prey that moves too much. An alligator can travel up to 20 mph on land and is very fast and silent in the water.
When you are near ponds or bodies of water keep pets and small children away.
I will say this as a reminder. Back in the slavery days, white extremists would kidnap Black babies and string them to trees. They leave them crying in the swamps for alligators and bears to attack them. They would use Black babies as bait for alligators and bears.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero, Gov. Arnold Palacios, Rep. Gregorio Sablan (D-MP) and Rep. James Moylan (R-GU) are aware of the potential diaster that two U.S. territories are facing. The typhon has the U.S. territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands in its path.
A Category 4 typhon is approaching Guam. Mind you, if a disaster does happen, House Republicans will not do much. They will oppose disaster relief, food stamps and federal assistance for workers who restore normality.
It will be part of the irony of Republicans and their obsession to cut the safety net.
Guerrero said for residents to remain calm and prepare for Mawar, which the National Weather Service said could hit southern Guam around midday Wednesday. She ordered the National Guard to help those in low-lying areas evacuate ahead of the storm as residents stocked up on jugs of water and generators.
“Current forecasts are not favorable to our island,” she said. “We are at the crosshairs of Typhoon Mawar. Take action now, stay calm, stay informed and stay safe.”
If Guam doesn’t take a direct hit, it will be very close, said Patrick Doll, the lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam.
The storm was intensifying as it approached Guam, and the weather service warned of a “triple threat” of winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge. The center of the Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 130 mph (209 kph), was about 190 miles (300 kilometers) southeast of Guam on Tuesday and was “wobbling” to the north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph), according to the weather service.
Winds could reach as high as 150 mph (240 kph), Guerrero said in her video message. And Doll said the typhoon could cause “extensive damage.”
The governor said that she would place Guam essentially in a lockdown effective 1 p.m. Tuesday and that those in low-lying areas needed to leave by 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Rain from the storm’s outer bands was falling Tuesday.
A storm surge of 6 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) above the normal high tide was expected and could reach as high as 15 feet (4 1/2 meters). Surf was expected to build sharply in the next day or two along south- and east-facing reefs, with dangerous surf of 20 to 25 feet (6 to 7 1/2 meters) Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday, the weather service said.
At the island’s grocery and hardware stores Monday, people left with shopping carts full of canned goods, cases of water and generators, the Pacific Daily News reported.
The Rev. Francis X. Hezel, a Jesuit priest and assistant pastor at Santa Barbara Church in Dededo, was trying to visit people at the hospital before it closed to visitors Tuesday.
Before hitting the road, he said, he had trouble finding someone to help him put air in his tires because everyone was busy readying their homes to withstand the storm.
“I live in a rectory,” he said. “I’m just closing the windows hoping that the gusts don’t bash them in. Praying for the best, I guess.”
Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures to consider moving for safety. Many homes are made of wood and tin.
“The triple threat of cat 4 typhoon force winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge are all expected for Guam and Rota,” the weather service said in a Tuesday morning update.
Rota, an island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was also under a typhoon warning, Doll said. Tinian and Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, were under tropical storm warnings.
Some people in those areas are still in temporary shelters or tents after Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, Doll noted.
“Guam takes a Category 4 or 5 hit every five to seven years. Mother Nature has spared us as of late,” Doll said, adding that the last direct hit was in 2002. “So we are way overdue.”
Most Republicans want a candidate that "owns the libs." It means that many of these voters are concerned about culture wars and pissing off Democrats.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is officially running for president. He has gotten an endorsement from Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Oracle's Larry Ellison. Ellison is putting some mega bucks into the Republican. The South Carolina senator is the only African American Republican in the current session.
But will Republicans back the Black guy?
Will Black America support a man who grew up in poverty to become a senator?
I strongly doubt it.
Known for his optimistic outlook, Scott, 57, told the stories of his grandfather, who once picked cotton in the Jim Crow South but later saw his grandson ascend to a seat in Congress, and his single mother, who worked 16-hour days as a nurse’s aide to support his family.
His grandfather, he said, had a “stubborn faith in God, in himself and faith in what America would be. He looked beyond the pain of his present, and he saw the promise of his future.” And his mother’s work ethic “taught me that there is dignity in all work.”
Interwoven into Scott’s anecdotes about inspiration were attacks on Biden and Democrats. To name a few, he criticized them for allowing “waitresses and mechanics” to help pay for the student loan forgiveness “of lawyers and doctors making six figures,” for having weak border policies that allow migrants and fentanyl to pour into the country, and for “demonizing, demoralizing and defunding the police.”
He said, under President Joe Biden, the country is “retreating” from patriotism, religious liberty, security, dignity in work, excellence in schools and more.
Scott did not mention Trump or any of his other competitors for the GOP nomination, but he said he believes he’s the candidate “the far-left fears the most.”
“When I cut your taxes, they called me a prop,” he said. “When I refunded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the N-word. I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disrupts their lives.”
Scott said if he were elected president, he’d secure the Southwest border, including by completing the wall started under Trump; win the economic competition against China; strengthen the economy; and bolster the military.
He pointed to his role as one of the lead authors in the 2017 Republican tax reform law. The legislation, he said, cut taxes for families, brought jobs and investment back from overseas and created “opportunity zones,” which are state-designated, economically distressed communities ripe for investment.
“That was just one bill,” Scott said. “Imagine what we could do with an entire agenda.”
Scott also said he would require every able-bodied American to work and give parents a greater choice in the schools their children attend and a voice in their curriculum.
Scott repeated a declaration he famously made in a televised 2021 speech following Biden’s first joint address of Congress when the South Carolina senator said, “America is not a racist country.”
“I'm living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression.”
He also said, “We need to stop canceling our Founding Fathers” — many of whom owned slaves — “and start celebrating them for the geniuses that they were.”
“They weren't perfect, but they believed that we could become a more perfect union,” Scott said.
He can trash Biden all he want and say he is a conservative but the white nationalists who backed Washed Up 45 see him as "woke."
He has to walk a fine line which is difficult. He supported Washed Up 45 for 2024 before he decided to enter the race. He backed almost every policy including the confirmations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Many of these candidates owe their reelection victories to the former president. The former president's nationalist and pro-white agenda has touched millions and it appears not to be waning.
Mind you, the junk food media continues to talk about him. Even the progressive agitators are still obsessed with Washed Up 45 and not defending Biden's agenda.
Mushmouth.
Biden is getting low approval despite him delivering jobs and focusing on bringing down debt. But he is tasked to clean up the messes of Washed Up 45 and Republicans like Scott.
Scott along with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) tried to pass the George Floyd Policing Act. Republicans are blocking it.
It was previous worked on by Kamala Harris, now current Vice President of the United States. Scott, Booker and Harris tried to pass it in 2020. They also tried to passing voting rights legislation.
Scott walked away from both of these.
Scott opposes statehood for Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. He believes it gives Democrats an advantage. Republicans have expressed racism when describing why they oppose statehood and voting rights. Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia have a non-white majority population and are larger than seven states. Of those states, Republicans control. He opposes voting in presidential elections for permenant residents living American Samoa, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Scott is considered a long shot candidate. He as well as former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchison polling at 1%. Vivek Ramaswamy is polling at 2%. Larry Elder is polling at 0.9%. Washed Up 45 has at least 58% of the vote. Current Florida governor Ron DeSantis who will join this week is polling at 28%.
Scott reminds me of Mushmouth from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. It all came to me when I looked at Twitter and someone who is a Black extremist who tagged him as the Mushmouth senator from South Carolina.
Delaware senator Tom Carper, longtime Democratic lawmaker announces he is retiring.
He stated that at large House member Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) should run. She has not confirmed any intentions but she is favored if she does. She is the first African American woman to be elected a member of U.S. House of Representatives.
It puts another seat up for grabs in the 2024 elections. Mind you that nothing is off the table. Ohio, Arizona, West Virginia, Montana and Michigan will be the toughest fights for the Democrats.
Maryland, Virginia, Nevada, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Maine will possibly challenging if moderate Republicans jump into the race. Democrats face an uphill battle.
Ohio's Sherrod Brown has at least a 54% chance of winning.
Nevada's Jacky Rosen has at least a 52% chance of winning.
Montana's Jon Tester has at least a 49% chance of winning.
Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema has at least a 48% chance of winning.
West Virginia's Joe Manchin has at least a 51% chance of winning.
Maine's Angus King has at least a 58% chance of winning.
Pennsylvania's Bob Casey, Jr. has at least a 54% chance of winning.
Florida's Rick Scott has at least a 55% chance of winning.
Texas' Ted Cruz has at least a 57% chance of winning.
Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin has at least a 51% chance of winning.
Nebraska's Pete Ricketts has at least a 60% chance of winning.
Carper, 76 served as governor of Delaware before winning four terms as a Delaware senator. His retirement may cause a pitched battle among Democrats to win the party's primary for the deep blue seat. Carper did indicate support for a specific successor on Monday.
Carper endorsed Lisa Blunt Rochester's potential Senate run.
"While nothing is forever, the Delaware Democratic Party is blessed today with a bench as strong as any I’ve ever seen in the 50 years that I’ve called Delaware home," Carper said in a press conference. "If there was ever an opportune time to step aside and pass the torch to the next generation, it’s coming, and it will be here on January 3, 2025.
"But, until then, God willing, I’ll continue working 60-hour weeks and coming home on the train most nights as long as Martha keeps leaving the light on for me," he added.
Carper says he called Rochester Monday morning and said he was "getting out of the way" in order for her to run. He said she accepted his support but then he declined to say whether she plans to run.
Carper is one of several Democrats who have announced their retirements in 2024. A total of 34 Senate seats – 20 currently held by Democrats, 11 currently held by Republicans and three currently held by independents – will be up for grabs in the next cycle. The three independent senators currently caucus with Democrats in the Senate, meaning Democrats will be tasked with defending 23 of the 34 seats in 2024 if they wish to maintain their majority in the legislative body.
Carper's retirement does not present a major risk of flipping red, however, as the state's electorate leans heavily toward Democrats.
No confirmation of running from the controversial independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona or Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. These two have stood in the way of getting President Joe Biden's key issues from being passed. They often support the president in about 90% of his agenda but sparred with the party's progressive base often.
At the G7 Summit, President Joe Biden has confirmed that Ukraine president Volodayrr Zelenskyy will be getting F16 aircraft in its fight against Russia. In response to the announcement, the Federation had added 500 Americans to its sanctions and deny entry list.
President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former president Barack Obama, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert, Erin Burnett, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Hillary Clinton, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Jon Huntsman and numerous others join a list of banned entry.
Russia on Friday announced it was banning “500 Americans,” many prominent figures of US executive power, from entering the country “in a response to the regularly anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the Joe Biden administration,” according to a statement from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The statement also said: “The attached ‘list-500’ also includes those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called Storming the Capitol.” On January 6, 2021, scores of supporters of Washed Up 45 sought to stop Biden’s certification as president and attacked the U.S. Capitol.
Also on the list is U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, the man who shot rioter Ashli Babbitt.
