<Has anyone besides me noticed a change in the tune the right wingbats here are singing? No more hosannas to the Great Leader, no more crowing about his foreign policy deals. Nothing about the virtual tide of illegal immigrants that the virtual wall is keeping out. Hardly anything about making America Great Again. (I think at this point they'd be glad to settle for mediocre.) They're even stopped enthusiastically defending Trump's disastrous failure to deal with the coronavirus epidemic -- not that any defense is possible.

Not to worry, <pernicious Pensacolan>: I am just as capable of giving y'all twenty per cent of goodbye.

<Boy oh boy, I was fortunate to skip over most of <AJ>'s rebuttal posts. Rereading them just reveals more empty rants.

Rather repetitious ones at that....>

Plus ca change....

<....FIDE has reviewed Niemann's play as part of it's review of both sides in the Carlsen-Niemann incident. We're all still waiting for their report....>

I should be curious to see what that contains.

<....Most of the accussations are just sturm und drang from someone who feels they have superhuman insights into the "truth", and have problems with others drifting off-topic, but never with themselves.

Oh, and did I mention the usual strain of self-aggrandizement?>

<Japanese video game company Nintendo announced that a character originally called "Blackie" has been renamed to "Spike."

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie," based on the internationally famous Mario Bros. franchise from Nintendo smashed box office records both for video game adaptations and animated films, making it the biggest opening of 2023 and the second-biggest three-day domestic animated opening (behind "Finding Dory").

Characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Princess Peach have been at the forefront of video game culture for decades, but the new film has numerous references to more obscure aspects of the franchise’s history as well. One of them is a character, Foreman Spike (voiced by Sebastian Maniscalco), who originally appeared in the 1984 video game "Wrecking Crew," and is depicted as a muscular, White construction worker with black facial hair.

His original name, "Blackie," as Western audiences have noted, translates to a racial slur for Black people. Merriam-Webster noted the "usually offensive" term indicates "a person belonging to a darkly pigmented race : a black person" or various birds.

Nintendo’s official Twitter account noted in late April that the name has been officially changed for all audiences, but did not specify the reason.

"The name of the character ‘Blackie’ that appears in the family computer software ‘Wrecking Crew’ will be changed to ‘Spike’, which is the same as the name in Europe and the United States," the official Nintendo account tweeted. "In addition, the name in ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ released on April 5, 2023 is also ‘Spike’."

Gaming news website Polygon commented on the name change, appearing to express mock concern that some may object to the change as an example of cancel culture.

"Given the enormous box office success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it makes sense that Nintendo would want to be proactive in amending Spike’s frankly insensitive name before it sparks a controversy," Polygon wrote. "'Blackie' is an incredibly unfortunate name — for so many reasons — so it’s an unambiguously good call on Nintendo’s part to change it. Surely no one will complain in bad faith about how renaming poor ‘ol Blackie is somehow an act of ‘erasing history’ or how their childhood has somehow been retroactively ‘ruined’ because of this common sense decision, right? Right!"

Culture website Bounding into Comics also commented on the change, noting various ways in which it was likely not meant to cause offense when the character was made in the 1980s.

"Blackie would seem to be based on the character’s black beard — maybe even an attempt to evoke the pirate Blackbeard," they wrote. "As 'ラ' (Ra) is used for both English’s 'r' and 'l,' it may be possible the character’s name was intended to be something akin to 'Brakey' or 'Breaky'— fitting for a demolition worker, but pure speculation nonetheless.">

<Clarence Thomas is not alone. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has also benefitted financially from parties with an interest in the high court’s business while neglecting to disclose the relationship, growing concerns over corruption within the institution.

Politico reported on Tuesday that Gorsuch had been trying to sell a piece of land in Colorado for nearly two years before Brian Duffy — the CEO of Greenberg Traurig, a law firm whose cases often find their way before the Supreme Court — bought it on April 16, 2017.

The exact date is significant. It was only nine days after Gorsuch was confirmed.

Gorsuch noted on federal disclosure forms that he made between $250,001 and $500,000 on the sale. The forms included a space where Gorsuch could have disclosed the identity of the purchaser, but he left it blank. Politico notes that Greenberg Traurig has since had 22 cases come before the court, and that in the 12 instances in which Gorsuch’s opinion was recorded, he sided with his benefactor’s firm on eight of them — including one that damaged the Clean Air Act.

The revelation comes a day after Harlan Crow — the billionaire conservative megadonor who has been treating Clarence Thomas to lavish gifts for decades — did indeed have business before the Supreme Court. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Trammell Crow Residential Co. had a case before the court in 2005, and that there’s no indication Thomas recused himself. Thomas said earlier this month that he didn’t report the gifts, which included yacht trips and stays at a private resort, because Crow didn’t have business before the court. (Crow says he was not involved in the Trammell Crow Residential Co. case.)

Thomas’ relationship with Crow — which also involves Crow buying $133,000 of real estate from Thomas’ family — has led Democrats to push for more oversight of the Supreme Court. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has the committee “will act” in response to the revelations about Thomas, while progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have called for his impeachment. “I think this has gone far, far beyond any sort of acceptable standard in any democracy, let alone in American democracy,” she said recently.>

<President Biden announced that he was running for president with a gauzy video that left little to fact-check. There was a brief reference to “MAGA Republicans” wanting to cut Social Security — when all sides in the budget debate have agreed to leave the retirement program off the table — but otherwise the presidential announcement was policy-light.

Not so for former president Donald Trump, who is running hard to win the presidency back. His statement, delivered in his own video, is one misleading attack after another. Here’s a line-by-line dissection.

“You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our nation in just a few short years. Not even close.”

This is rhetorical overkill. For what it’s worth, the Siena College Research Institute in September released rankings of the worst and best presidents based on a survey of historians, political scientists and presidential scholars. Trump ranked 43rd, third from the bottom. Biden ranked 19th, between Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president, ranked 11th.

“Thanks to Joe Biden’s socialist spending calamity, American families are being decimated by the worst inflation in half a century.”

The reasons for inflation are complex. Biden’s 2021 coronavirus relief bill may have contributed to the sudden increase in prices. But inflation spiked around the globe after the pandemic, increasing faster in many other countries, suggesting that this is not a problem resulting only from presidential spending priorities. Trump throws in the word “socialist” for no apparent reason, except that it’s red meat for his supporters.

“Banks are failing. Our currency is crashing and the dollar will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in over 200 years.”

Some banks have failed because they didn’t properly manage inflation-rate risk. The U.S. dollar soared early in Biden’s term — up as much as 8.9 percent in the Wall Street Journal’s dollar index during 2022, the biggest yearly rise since 2014. Now it’s come back to earth. The dollar only became the world’s reserve currency in 1944.

“Real wages have been falling 24 months in a row — in other words, under Biden, workers have gotten a PAY CUT each and every month for two straight years.”

There are various ways to measure “real wages,” but real disposable personal income per capita, a measure favored by economists, is basically flat from December 2020 to February 2023. Ordinarily, however, one would expect it to increase year over year.

“We have surrendered our energy independence, just like we surrendered in Afghanistan, which we had just a short time ago — and the price of gasoline just hit a five-month high, and it’s going much higher than that.”

As president, Trump would falsely claim the United States had achieved energy independence. That was never the case, but now he’s suggesting Biden is at fault. Trump’s reference to a five-month high for gasoline prices is an implicit acknowledgment that prices have dropped sharply since the high reached after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in U.S. history, by far. Never had a border like this. Under Biden, the southern border has been abolished — and millions of illegal aliens have been released into our communities. What’s happening now is beyond belief. They’re coming in from mental institutions and prisons. They are all being emptied. They are being dumped into the United States of America. Many of these people are very dangerous, they are being dumped. We are like a dumping ground.”

This part echoes a notorious section of Trump’s 2015 campaign announcement: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing … drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” As president, Trump was obsessed with undocumented immigrant crossings. It spiked at various times during his presidency. But then it dwindled to virtually nothing in 2020 during the pandemic — the basis for his claim that he had the “most secure border in U.S. history.” Since Biden became president, undocumented immigrant crossings have risen to record highs, but it’s ridiculous for Trump to say the border “has been abolished.” Many migrants captured at the border are sent back, but by some accounts, at least 1.2 million migrants were seen by authorities but not apprehended....>

<....“Our cities have been overrun with homelessness, drug addicts and violent criminals, who are being released from jail in mass with no retribution whatsoever, while law enforcement is weaponized against law-abiding conservatives or Republicans, or people they just don’t like.”

This is a mishmash of grievances. Trump appears to be referencing the Manhattan district attorney who indicted Trump on felony charges related to his role in hush money payments to an adult-film star and a Playboy model. Crime in New York has increased since 2020 — though it remains far below 1980s levels — and city statistics show that of the seven severe categories of crime, five are down relative to this point in 2022.

“Our children are being indoctrinated and mutilated by left-wing freaks and zealots.”

This jaw-dropping line appears to be an attempt to tap into objections to critical race theory, and anti-transgender sentiment that has emerged on the religious right.

“The senior ranks of our military have gone completely woke, and our military is suffering greatly.”

This is a theme lifted from Fox News and conservative media outlets. Military officials have pushed back at these claims in congressional hearings. “When I looked at it, there is one hour of equal-opportunity training in basic training, and 92 hours of rifle marksmanship training,” Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston told lawmakers in a March hearing.

“Biden has totally humiliated our nation on the world stage — starting with the Afghanistan disaster, perhaps the most embarrassing event in the history of our country. It meant so much to our enemies when they watched that horrible retreat.”

Biden’s departure from Afghanistan was poorly handled — but it was something Trump wanted to do, too. The Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban set the stage for the departure of U.S. troops no later than May 2021, a deadline that Biden briefly extended to August....>

<....“Russia is teaming up with China.”

Correct. But this trend has been in motion for years.

“Iran is days away from a nuclear bomb — not even thinkable.”

Trump is blaming Biden for one of his own errors. In 2017, Trump terminated the agreement with Iran negotiated during the Obama administration — by Iran, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China), Germany and the European Union — that was intended to restrain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. He said he would get a better deal but never did. By the time Biden became president, Iran was no longer interested in reviving the agreement, though the Biden administration tried hard to engage with the regime. Iran appears to have enriched enough uranium to build several weapons, a United Nations agency says, but how quickly that could be accomplished is uncertain.

“Ukraine has been devastated by an invasion that would never, ever have happened if I was president — and Joe Biden has led us to the very brink of World War III.”

It’s ludicrous for Trump to make this claim. Biden has won praise for maintaining European unity in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“They say Trump was right about everything. Well, I’m not predicting World War III, but I will say this: We’re very close and they’re only talking about nuclear weapons.”

Not sure who “they” are, but Trump has a habit of making false claims about his predictions of earth-shattering events.

“On top of it all, Biden is the most corrupt president in American history — and that’s not even close. Nobody can believe what’s going on, with again no retribution whatsoever.”

No allegation of corruption by Biden has ever been proved. His son Hunter Biden has come under tremendous scrutiny but despite energetic efforts by Republicans — and investigative reporting by journalists — nothing has stuck. Strikingly, both here and earlier in his statement, Trump uses the word “retribution” — which is not the same as legal accountability.

“With such a calamitous and failed presidency, it is almost inconceivable that Biden would even think of running for reelection. You know what happened in the last election: they cheated, and they rigged the election.”

Trump once again repeats his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

“But I promise you this: When I stand on that debate stage and compare our records, it will be radical Democrats’ worst nightmare because there’s never been a record as bad as they have, and our country has never been through so much. There has never been a greater contrast between two successive administrations in all of American history. Ours being greatness, and theirs being failure.”

Polls show most Americans, Democrat or Republican, are unenthusiastic about the Trump-Biden rematch. But Biden is counting on Trump hatred inspiring significant turnout by Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans. It’s not clear that Biden ignites the same sort of negative passion among Republicans. A Wall Street Journal poll shows Biden is backed by a wide margin of voters who disapprove of both the Biden and Trump presidencies.

“With your support in the election, we will defeat Joe Biden in 2024. We will rescue our economy. We will crush inflation. We will stop the invasion on our southern border. We will restore our nation’s dignity. And we will prevent World War III from happening. Together, we will all make America great again! Thank you.”

Lots of promises, reiterating the points above.>

<"inference piled on assumption, third-hand hearsay accepted as fact, the self-serving accounts of disgruntled adversaries elevated to gospel, the 'impressions' of people several times removed from the scene".>

<House Republicans on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill to increase the nation's debt ceiling while cutting federal government spending -- and while the legislation has no prospect of becoming law, GOP leaders hope it will help force negotiations with Democrats.

The proposal, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed 217-215, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.

Those Republicans were Reps. Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett and Matt Gaetz.

McCarthy held a news conference afterward to tout the passage and jabbed back at Democratic critics by suggesting they needed to do more than complain. He addressed President Joe Biden directly at the news conference: "We're the only ones to pass a plan. So, I think it's up to you now. Whether the economy goes in any trouble, it's you, because the Republicans raised the debt limit."

"We've done our job," he said.

"The Senate could pass our bill or send us something that they have," he said, "and we'll go to a conference."

McCarthy told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that there has been no communication with the White House on the debt ceiling and no progress on setting up another meeting. The president and the speaker previously met in February.

In a statement Wednesday night, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre decried the GOP bill as cutting "health care, education, Meals on Wheels, and public safety" and cutting health care for millions because of proposed work requirements for Medicaid.

"In our history, we have never defaulted on our debt or failed to pay our bills. Congressional Republicans must act immediately and without conditions to avoid default and ensure that the full faith and credit of the United States is not put at risk. That is their job," Jean-Pierre said.

Wednesday's vote was the latest test of McCarthy's leadership of his conference. Given the narrow Republican majority in the House, he could only afford four defections on the bill -- and he agreed to a series of 11th hour compromises this week with GOP holdouts, such as adding more stringent work requirements for certain federal programs and restoring ethanol tax credits, which the White House blasted as an unfair "carve out."

If enacted, the bill would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, reduce funding for federal agencies to 2022 fiscal year levels, limit growth in government spending to 1% per year and block various measures backed by the White House, such as federal student debt cancellation and new funding for the IRS.

"We cannot sit back and ignore the problem like the president has. I know he does it with the border, and I know he is now doing it with the fiscal policy of America," McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday before the vote. He the bill was "to get us to the negotiating table" with Democrats.

"We want to sit down and work together, and that is exactly what this bill does," he said, noting that "we are sitting at $31 trillion of debt."

The proposed debt limit increase would last through March 2024 -- a shorter extension than preferred by President Biden -- in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes....>

<....Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it. Democrats have repeatedly insisted the debt ceiling should be raised separate from any compromise on government spending and policy.

"Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without -- without -- conditions and it's just that simple," Jean-Pierre said in January. She recently labeled the House bill a "ransom note."

Because the U.S. does not take in enough revenue to pay for its bills, it periodically borrows money, increasing its debt -- which is capped by Congress unless lawmakers raise the limit. The U.S. hit that debt ceiling in January and the Treasury Department has been employing "extraordinary measures" since then to keep the government funded, but those will run out as early as June.

In remarks at a news conference earlier on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the House GOP bill couldn't clear the Senate but said that McCarthy and Biden must come to some compromise. "We must never default, and the agreement needs to be reached between the speaker and the president," he said.

Citing past debt ceiling negotiations that involved Biden during the Obama administration, McConnell said Biden "knows that sometimes in divided government, you don't get things exactly the way you want them."

On Wednesday afternoon, before the House voted, Biden was asked a shouted question about negotiating on the debt ceiling as he left a press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is visiting Washington.

"They haven't figured out the debt limit yet," Biden said, somewhat sarcastically.

When a reporter asked if he would meet with McCarthy, the president said yes -- but made it clear, once again, that he views increasing the debt ceiling as "not negotiable."

"I'm happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended," he said.>

<The Republican Party has lost one of its most significant backers, as tech billionaire Peter Thiel says he will no longer be donating to any political effort, including Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

Sources close to Thiel told Reuters that the famed investor declared "on multiple recent occasions that he had withdrawn from U.S. politics."

Born in Germany, Thiel cut his teeth in the finance and tech industries, making his fortune by co-founding PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and being an early investor in Facebook (NASDAQ:META), among many other enterprises.

His current net worth stands at $8.2 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Thiel had backed Trump‘s successful 2016 presidential campaign with $1.25 million. While he didn't support the former president’s 2020 campaign, he donated $35 million in the 2022 midterm elections, supporting 16 Republican candidates for federal congressional seats.

According to non-partisan research site OpenSecrets, Thiel Capital — Thiel's VC firm— was the fifth-largest donor to the Republican Party in 2022, and the11th largest overall donor when including all parties.

Privately-held logistics company Uline, owned by Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, was listed as the largest donor of the 2022 cycle, having contributed $89.8 million to the Republican Party.

Citadel, a hedge fund led by investor Kenneth C. Griffin came in second with $72.7 million and trading firm Susquehanna International Group was third with $56.4 million.

A business associate of Thiel's said that the Republican Party's recent focus on "culture war" issues drew him away from the party, citing the party’s position on abortion and transgender people's rights as examples.

The GOP should be more focused on how the U.S. can innovate and compete with China on the global market, said the source.

Earlier this month, The NY Times reported that Thiel is currently involved in one of many so-called "secret coalitions" of wealthy conservatives looking to "disrupt but advance the Republican agenda."

Grown dissatisfied with the political action of elected Republican politicians, these coalitions have allegedly invested hundreds of millions of dollars into side projects. The report indicates that Thiel is part of a coalition called the Rockbridge Network, which has invested $30 million on "conservative media, legal, policy and voter registration projects, among other initiatives."

Earlier this week, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic leaders expressed support for President Joe Biden's bid for the 2024 presidential candidacy.

Late last year, a report found that the Koch brothers, historically some of the wealthiest and most important contributors to the Republican Party, had been diverting funds to back Liz Cheney, as she considers a 2024 presidential campaign.

Still, a recent poll shows that Trump continues to be the favorite to win the Republican nomination, beating second-in-line Ron DeSantis in preliminary surveys.>

You dish out plenty of your own, O Great Victim.

<....I've been watching the world championship games streamed....

....Both players are competing hard, giving it their all, but their bad habits have been catching up with each player, losing games they could have won. It's been fun; tied up with two classical games to go. Nepo would seem to be the clear favorite in the tie breaks since he plays too quickly and Ding plays too slowly. Then again, Nepo looked tired in Game 12. He might be wearing down.>

The GOAT has spoken; with his verdict in, the match is decided.

<A Cancun police search turned up eight new bodies near the popular tourist hotspot.

While more than one generation has fond memories of catching some rays in Cancun, the Mexican resort town has had a rough few weeks maintaining its image as a safe vacation destination.

At the start of April 2023, local authorities found four bodies very close to the main hotel zone. A few weeks earlier, an American tourist was shot in the leg at the nearby resort town of Puerto Morelos while a Mexican tourist was killed in the exclusive Tulum resort on April 11.

The washed-up body saga did not stop before the month was over and eight more bodies were located in Cancun and nearby areas.

Search for Missing People In Cancun Turns Up Answers

After learning of their disappearances from family, the police department for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo embarked on a regular search for missing people over the weekend of April 22-23.

Volunteers, who in many cases were the family members of the missing, also joined the search by spreading out to cover additional ground.

The search spanned wooded lots, sinkhole ponds and even nearby construction sites and eventually turned up eight new bodies that officers then began working to identify. Forensic evidence showed that the bodies were dumped there between one week and two months ago.

On April 25, Quintana Roo's head prosecutor Oscar Montes de Oca told reporters that three of the bodies were people who had formerly been reported missing and stressed that his team would not stop trying to find others.

According to the Associated Press, there are currently more than 112,000 people reported missing in Mexico while an increase in gang violence in Cancun has exacerbated the problem in the area.

While the bodies were found closer to the airport and outside the main hotel and beach area, news of the discoveries significantly damage the image of the picture-perfect tropical vacation paradise that Cancun works hard to maintain.

Montes de Oca's office also published a Facebook post clarifying that the bodies did not turn up at a hotel beach and asking the public "not to publish and share on social networks false news that only damages the image of Quintana Roo."

Amid a recent spike in drug and gang violence, the U.S. government issued a March travel warning advisory that urged American citizens to "exercise increased caution in the downtown areas of popular spring break locations including Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, and Tulum."

While the government had long warned against travel to individual Mexican states such as Sinaloa and Zacotecas, the recent advisory raises alarm against popular tourist areas that it had previously marked as safe.

The violence is usually limited to members of rival gangs and a fraction compared to the 5.6 million American travelers who visited Cancun in 2022. That said, any public discovery contributes to visitor worries and perception of Cancun as a crime-riddled place.

While the U.S. State Department reiterated that the "vast majority [of visitors] travel safely," it advised registering one's visit on the embassy, staying alert and maintaining situational awareness and getting health insurance coverage that extends to Mexico.

As many of the safety incidents involve alcohol, the government also advises "knowing one's drinking companions" and consuming alcohol with a "group of friends who have your safety in mind.">

<With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' 2024 presidential hopes already fading before he officially announces, Republicans are trying to get their arms around how much damage Donald Trump will inflict on the primary process and to candidates down ticket.

According to a report from Politico's Jonathan Martin, the former president is already creating headaches for the GOP leadership by considering disrupting plans for the GOP presidential debates, and aides close to Trump claim "he's angry" and already expressing his displeasure with the Republican National Committee.

Days after Trump launched a furious diatribe aimed at the RNC on Truth Social claiming they didn't consult him on the timing and place of the second debate, Martin writes that the former president has been quizzing GOP lawmakers and asking whether he should appear at the first GOP debate.

According to the Politico report, at a recent meeting, "Trump surveyed the lawmakers about whether they thought he should show up for the first GOP primary debate and lend legitimacy to there being a serious contest for the nomination," before adding, "Some of the Republicans wondered out loud about the wisdom of exposing himself to attacks from lesser candidates when he’s so far up in the polls."

Taking the other side, aides close to Trump are urging him to show up over fears that he will be battered by his GOP rivals in his absence and won't be able to "punch back" in real time.

Politico's Martin added that the former president is also furious that Fox News is sponsoring the second debate.

Writing, "Trump may be headed to a showdown over the debates that will reveal how much power he holds over his adopted party," Martin added, "He’s angry, people close to him tell me, that the Republican National Committee is insistent upon holding the first debate, sponsored by Fox News, in Milwaukee during the dead of summer simply because that coincides with the party’s summer meeting there."

The report notes that Trump believes the debate is scheduled too early in the process and "...he has questions post-Tucker Carlson defenestration about how friendly Fox may be to him and wonders whether his lead is so significant that there’s no reason to give their news side anchors the draw they crave.">

<Twitter users had a field day after DeSantis’ interview on “Hannity.” The Florida governor was talking to Sean Hannity from Japan, but one mishap took all the attention.

DeSantis’ squinting face

DeSantis is in Tokyo as part of an overseas trade mission. The host and the Flodira governor spoke about Joe Biden, and Donald Trump and even hinted at presidential candidacy.

Something in the way

However, the fact that DeSantis looked directly at the sun did not make any of these topics more interesting than his expression.

Big in Japan

During an interview, the governor expressed his plans to promote increased Japanese investment in Florida. He also talked about Chinese influence and urged strength against China.

The governor talks about the former president

Speaking about Donald Trump, DeSantis said, “I enjoyed supporting him when he was president.” However, he added, “We worked really hard for his re-election in Florida, and I always had a good relationship with him. And then, once the midterm election happened, he started taking shots at me.”

The Florida governor does not want to brag

The red wave spent Florida during the midterm election when DeSantis won against Democrat Charlie Crist. However, the governor told Hannity, “I didn’t really do anything to [cause] it except do a good job, but that’s fine.”

He added. “I mean, Sean, you know, when you’re making things happen, you take incoming from a variety of targets. So, that’s just the nature of the business.”

Hannity asked the governor if he had plans to run for president in 2024. DeSantis kept things vague, “I’ve said from the election of 2022 when people started asking me, we got a legislative session that we’re working on.”

DeSantis continued, “We’ve got a few more weeks to go with that. We’re going to be putting up a lot of wins on the board.” The governor added, “I’m not going to be making any announcements before that’s concluded.”

Near the end of the interview, the host asked DeSantis if he was leaning toward candidacy. The governor simply replied, “Stay tuned.”

Illustration. Image credit: Shutterstock
People have been speculating that he will officially announce in May or June after the Florida Legislature ends its session.

Regardless of what DeSantis had to say, Twitter users had to comment on DeSantis’ appearance during the interview. The comments were hilarious, as one person said, “Resting Abercrombie & Fitch Face.”

Someone wrote, “He looks constipated.” Another chimed in, “He was doing Steve Martin yesterday. Now he’s doing Brando.” In reply, a person said, “I thought it was a really bad Ronald Reagan.”

Another Twitter user wrote, “That’s my face when I’m in a nationally-broadcast interview, but I realize I left the stove on.” Someone alleged, “I think he’s trying to look Japanese.” The third noticed, “He always looks like he’s having a prostrate exam.”

Someone shared, “Any competent comms team would have fixed this before it started, but this is way funnier. Good job staring into the sun, though I know GOP voters like that.”

Another pondered, “What genius aimed him directly into the sun?” More people wanted to know, “Why is he always staring at the sun??”>

<Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) chewed out the gay president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, at a House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Select Coronavirus Crisis hearing yesterday, and Greene went so far as to say that Weingarten, an adoptive mother, is not a mother because she didn’t give birth to her kids.

“Are you a medical doctor?” Greene asked Weingarten. “Are you a mother?”

She called the idea that the U.S. government should follow the will of the people “woke nonsense.”

Weingarten said that she is a mother by marriage to her wife. According to CNN, Weingarten has adopted her and her wife’s kids.

“What I’d like to talk about is your recommendations to the CDC as not a medical doctor, not a biological mother, um, and really not a teach either,” Greene barked at Weingarten.

“You have no business advising the CDC what the medical guidelines were for school closures,” Greene said, as if the CDC shouldn’t be hearing from the professionals affected by its guidelines. “The problem is, is people like you need to admit that you’re just a political activist, not a teacher, not a mother, and not a medical doctor.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) stood up for Weingarten, calling a point of order.

“I just wanna make a note that the decorum of the attacks on the witness were unacceptable, that the gentlelady from Georgia just did,” he said. “And so it’d be nice if we didn’t attack the witnesses, particularly when making a decision about whether or not she’s a mother.”

Speaking to Weingarten, Garcia said, “You are a mother. Thank you for being a great parent.”

This isn’t the first time that Greene has said that a woman can’t be a mother because of her sexuality. Last year, Greene said that out White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre can’t understand the baby formula shortage because she’s “married to a woman” and “doesn’t have children.”

Jean-Pierre and her wife, Suzanne Malveaux, have a daughter.

This also isn’t the first time that Republicans have attacked Weingarten – the leader of the second-largest teachers’ union in the U.S. – for not having biological children.

“Randi Weingarten is a joke,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Fox News in 2021. “Randi Weingarten does not even have children of her own. What in the hell does she know about raising and teaching kids?”

“In fact, that’s probably why she was perfectly fine to shut down schools for two years and force kids to wear masks, because she didn’t have to deal with it at home.”>

Why couldn't the parents of this worthless cow have had an abortion? She appears determined to monopolise a shot at the Darwin Awards.

Besides, you have the BEST smile!!! You make Orange Face cringe like an old, dried out prune nobody wants ~ That's gotta count for something, right?>

'Social justice warrior', indeed.

Faux Christian, indeed.

Go to it, <fredthejackal>: save the world as you look to mould it into your own image.

<(Reuters) - North Carolina's highest court on Friday ruled that state law does not bar lawmakers from drawing congressional and state legislative lines for partisan benefit, boosting Republicans' odds next year of maintaining their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The decision threw out the court's previous decision, issued barely more than a year ago when liberal judges controlled the court, that had found partisan gerrymandering violated the state constitution.

That ruling had thrown out a Republican-drawn congressional map that would likely have secured them 11 of the state's 14 seats. Instead, Republicans and Democrats split the seats evenly in November under a court-approved map.

In the same election, Republicans flipped two Democratic seats on the North Carolina Supreme Court, securing a 5-2 conservative majority. In February, the new majority agreed to rehear the redistricting case at the request of Republican lawmakers, an extraordinarily rare move in the court's history.

Friday's ruling along party lines likely clears the way for the Republican-controlled legislature to craft new maps for the 2024 elections, which could net them as many as four additional seats. Republicans control the U.S. House with 222 seats, compared to 213 for Democrats.

In a 146-page opinion, Chief Justice Paul Newby noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had similarly found that federal courts have no jurisdiction to address partisan gerrymandering.

"Our constitution expressly assigns the redistricting authority to the General Assembly subject to explicit limitations in the text," Newby wrote for the majority. "Those limitations do not address partisan gerrymandering."

In a scathing dissent, Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat, accused the court's conservatives of pursuing their own political agenda at the expense of voters' rights, calling it one of the court's "darkest moments."

"Today, the Court shows that its own will is more powerful than the voices of North Carolina's voters," she wrote.>

'Don't like the will of the people? F*** 'em!!!'

<China resumed construction of a military base in the United Arab Emirates, a move likely to alarm US officials and increase concerns that another US ally in the Middle East is drawing closer to China.

According to leaked US intelligence documents obtained by The Washington Post, construction has resumed at a Chinese military base just outside Abu Dhabi.

Plans for a base were halted in 2021 after the US voiced its objections. But The Post's documents indicate that the plans now appear to be going ahead.

According to the report, US intelligence is monitoring Chinese activity at the base and at other locations in the oil-rich UAE amid concerns that it is drawing closer to Beijing. The presence of Chinese officials at several sensitive military sites have alarmed US intelligence, the report says.

Here is a rundown of the project so far:

The base is part an ambitious plan to create a global network of military facilities in ports across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, by 2030, according to The Post's documents.

China in recent months has made an audacious power play in the Middle East, organising a diplomatic thaw between longtime rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Beijing has exposed the limitations of US influence in a region where it's long been the dominant international power.

Saudi Arabia, another traditional US ally in the region, has also riled the White House by drawing closer to China, holding a summit last year to announce cooperation with Beijing across a broad range of security and economic issues.

At the same time, China has sought to position itself as a peace broker in Ukraine, while also offering diplomatic and economic support to Russia in its invasion of its neighbor.>

<Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) is calling out Republicans for their silence on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) attack on American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, in which she said the union leader is “not a mother,” even though she has stepchildren.

Greene’s comment came during a Wednesday meeting of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, during which she and other Republicans questioned Weingarten over AFT’s involvement in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance on reopening schools.

Weingarten told Greene during the hearing she is a “mother by marriage,” but Greene repeatedly said she is “not a mother.”

“The problem is people like you need to admit that you’re just a political activist, not a teacher, not a mother and not a medical doctor,” Greene said.

Frost said on Friday he was adopted by “two loving parents” and received “all the love and support a child could ever ask for.”

“Yet, I heard in this chamber a few days ago that someone’s saying my parents aren’t real parents. Let me be clear — I am their child. They are my parents. And for bigoted, closed-minded reasons, certain folks have decided that people who adopt their children are lesser than,” he said.

Frost said he has not seen any Republicans in the body “condemn these disgusting comments” and hopes they do not agree with them.

“And directly to the people who have opened up their hearts and homes for children ready for their embrace, don’t let anyone ever diminish who you are. You are real parents. A parent and nothing less,” he said.

Frost previously slammed Greene in a tweet after her exchange with Weingarten.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), a member of the subcommittee, called Greene’s comments “unacceptable,” telling Weingarten “you are a mother” and “thank you for being a great parent.”

The Hill has reached out to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who chairs the pandemic subcommittee, for comment on Greene’s and Frost’s remarks.>

<The collapse of Signature Bank was due to “poor management,” according to a report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation released Friday.

Bank management “did not always heed FDIC examiner concerns, and was not always responsive or timely in addressing FDIC supervisory recommendations,” the report said.

Contagion effects from Silicon Valley Bank’s failure and Silvergate Bank’s self-liquidation, which occurred just days before Signature Bank was forced to close, helped ignite the run on deposits, the FDIC report stated. But the FDIC said that was not the root cause of Signature Bank’s failures.

In particular, bank management did not fully understand the risks associated with accepting crypto deposits, which comprised more than 20% of its total deposits, the FDIC report said.

“When that industry started to turn and interest rates started to rise, those deposits started leaving the bank,” Marshall Gentry, chief risk officer at the FDIC, said on a call with reporters Friday. “Even though they were crypto cash deposits, it was a traditional kind of bank run.”

Signature Bank had $110 billion in assets at the end of 2022, making it the 29th-largest US bank. The FDIC said the bank was overreliant on uninsured deposits, which accounted for 90% of overall deposits at the end of 2022, according to FDIC quarterly banking data.

Staffing shortages at FDIC hindered oversight of bank

On the supervisory side, the FDIC acknowledged it fell short when it came to providing Signature Bank with adequate and timely reviews, citing staffing shortages at the agency.

Signature Bank was supposed to have its own examination team through the FDIC’s New York office. But since 2020, 40% of the regional office’s roles have been vacant or filled by temporary staff, according to the FDIC.

“Certain targeted reviews were not completed timely or at all because of resource shortages,” the report said.

The high cost of living in New York, salary competition from private-sector financial firms and other regulatory agencies are among the reason the FDIC is struggling to hire new talent, the agency said.

The FDIC’s report comes on the heels of the Federal Reserve’s report, which found that SVB failed due to a similar lack of internal risk management. The report also said that supervisors at the Fed “did not fully appreciate the extent of the vulnerabilities as Silicon Valley Bank grew in size and complexity.” And when they identified risks at SVB, they did not work with the bank to resolve the issues in a timely manner, the report found.

The FDIC led the investigation into Signature Bank, a New York state-charted bank, since it was the primary regulator. Signature Bank was not a member of the Federal Reserve System, and therefore was not directly regulated or supervised by the Fed, whereas SVB was.

No FDIC recommendation for stricter capital, liquidity requirements

The report noted that the speed with which depositors withdrew their money from SVB and Signature Bank was “unprecedented” and “may lead to changes in regulation,” but the FDIC didn’t provide any recommendations. That’s in stark contrast to the Fed’s report, which directly called for stricter capital and liquidity requirements.

Gentry, who oversaw the FDIC report, said examiners were working with Signature Bank to develop “greater internal controls over liquidity risk management.” He hinted that a separate FDIC report due Monday on options to reform the nation’s deposit insurance could make regulatory recommendations.

Credit crunch concerns

Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Banking Association, a trade group, is urging policymakers to “refrain from pushing forward new and unrelated regulatory requirements that could limit the availability of credit.” Since SVB and Signature Bank collapsed, lenders — particularly mid-size and regional banks — have had to be more selective about who they give loans to, with rising interest rates and shrinking deposits on hand.

Some lawmakers, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said the Fed’s report demands “the Fed immediately adopt stricter bank oversight and Congress swiftly strengthen bank regulations to prevent another crisis.”>

The thought would never have occurred to me.

<ESPN fired Marly Rivera on Wednesday after allegedly calling another reporter a "f----g c---t."

The New York Post's Andrew Marchand said there was video of Rivera's verbal tirade when reporting the story. TMZ released the footage Thursday.

Rivera and Ivón Gaete are both attempting to speak to Aaron Judge, who was signing autographs and posing for photos with young fans on the Yankee Stadium field. After berating Gaete in Spanish and English, Rivera hurled the obscene remark in earshot of Judge and others.

A stunned Gaete turned around to confirm the video operator right behind them caught the incident.

The exchange took place before April 18's game between the Yankees and Los Angeles Angels. Marchand said Gaete, a freelance journalist, was there covering Shohei Ohtani for Tokyo Broadcasting.

The video appears to corroborate Marchand's report that Rivera thought Gaete was infringing on her time to speak with the reigning AL MVP. However, it didn't seem like Judge wanted to talk to any media while interacting with fans. After Rivera left, Judge politely told Gaete he was about to head back to the clubhouse and promised to speak with her another time.

Rivera had covered MLB at ESPN for 13 years.

"I fully accept responsibility for what I said, which I should not have,” Rivera told Marchand. "There were extenuating circumstances but that in no way is an excuse for my actions."

Rivera also claimed she was being "singled out" because of past professional disagreements with John Blundell, Gaete's husband and MLB's Vice President of Communications.>

<CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble was reportedly caught having a relationship with 76-year-old billionaire and Trump campaign financial backer Tom Barrack ahead of the claims this month that she had also had an “inappropriate relationship” with ousted NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.

The New York Post reported on Friday that Gamble’s relationship with Barrack had been accidentally revealed to co-workers in 2020 after he appeared in the background while the anchor was recording her CNBC show Capital Connection.

The video showed a man resembling Barrack standing in a doorway in the background as Gamble attempted to motion him out of frame. According to the Post, the video was recorded in a Turkish hotel room in Summer 2020, when Gamble was 39 and Barrack was 74.

After employees at CNBC identified the figure in the background as Barrack, who Gamble had interviewed for the network just months prior, a company investigation into the relationship was launched. The network was reportedly concerned that an interview Gamble hosted with former President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner had been set up by Barrack. The Post spoke to several anonymous sources who claimed Gamble travelled on Barrack’s private jet to meet Kushner and that the anchor used Barrack’s New York penthouse to record her show.

Photos on Gamble’s Instagram page show the CNBC anchor lounging on yachts, travelling in Emirates first class, and staying in luxury rooms.

Gamble’s lawyer Suzanne McKie denied allegations that Barrack introduced the anchor to Kushner and claimed they had met independently in 2019. The lawyer also claimed Gamble had met Barrack for the first time during their February 2020 interview and that she had “never had inappropriate relationships with journalistic sources and has always maintained the highest ethical standards in her reporting.”

While the video of Gamble and Barrack sparked an investigation at NBCUniversal, she remained in her position and one source told the New York Post that others at the network could not work out “why she was being protected” as “any normal employee would be fired” over the secret relationship.

Gamble also appeared to have some form of relationship with NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell and it was reported on Monday that Gamble accused Shell of sexual harassment. NBCUniversal announced his departure on Sunday, citing an investigation into “inappropriate conduct,” while Shell apologized in a statement for having “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.”>