#ron ziegler

[jebbiearchive]

[ris-d-deridex]

Okay, actually kind of proud of this drawing

[mitjalovse]

Tim Renwick might seem like a hidden figure, yet he can manage to be pretty much everywhere as we've seen. For example, He found himself on the records by Andy Gibb, which aren't given a fair shake, I fear. Look, Andy Gibb was probably on his way to become a honorary Bee Gee, but set aside all the hype he had and consider the fact he equipped himself quite well for the tunes. Sure, his brothers give him their immense quality songwriting, yet the fact he didn't stumble in here showed he had a promise. Who knows where he could've gone later on. I mean, I assume he would've survived the 80's much better than Bee Gees, though this can only be our guess as he still remains underappreciated thanks to the popularity he had.

[dust-in-her-face]

bruno on republicans and democrats | the west wing, ep. 306 “gone quiet”

Because I am tired of working for candidates who make me think I should be embarrassed to believe what I believe, Sam. I'm tired of getting them elected. We all need some therapy, because someone came along and said that liberal means "soft on crime." Soft on drugs. Soft on communism. Soft on defense. And we're gonna tax you back to the stone age because people shouldn't have to go to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying, “Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave-it-to-Beaver-trip-back-to-the-fifties!” we cowered in the corner and said, “Please. Don't. Hurt. Me.” No more.

someone ate their veggies one morning and had this moment at one of the Harris campaign meetings and lit a fire under their assess

[rank-sentimentalist]

CUT TO: EXT. OUTSIDE G.W. HOSPITAL - DAY

Ron Butterfield is doing a security check, as Toby walks up to him.

TOBY

Ron.

RON

Hey, Toby. I heard they're about to take him off bypass.

TOBY

Pretty soon, yeah. Listen, can I talk to you for a minute?

RON

Sure. [to cop] Sergeant, I want those people in the corner backed up another 200 feet.

COP

Yes, sir.

RON

And if they move again, then handcuff them to a parking meter.

TOBY

How's your hand?

RON

It's fine.

TOBY

You should be home.

RON

What's on your mind?

TOBY

C.J.'s starting to get some questions about why the President's exit wasn't covered in Rosslyn.

RON

The Secret Service doesn't comment on procedure.

TOBY

Yeah. Ron, a few weeks after the President was sworn in, you got a memo about his protection.

RON

Yeah.

TOBY

It said he wanted to enter and exit in the open air, and he didn't like the feeling of traveling around in an armored tank.

RON

Yeah.

TOBY

Specifically, it said he wouldn't use the tent or the canopy anymore.

RON

Yeah.

TOBY

I wrote that memo, and the President signed it at my urging.

RON

I know.

TOBY

Ron, I don't think it's right that the Secret Service get blamed for what happened last night, I want the Treasury Department to hand over my memo to the Press.

RON

No, we can't do that.

TOBY

There are going to be a lot of questions.

RON

There are always a lot of questions.

TOBY

Ron.

RON

Don't worry about it, Toby.

TOBY

It's not right. You're the guys - look at your hand.

RON

My hand is fine.

TOBY

Your hand is not fine.

RON

Toby.

TOBY

Let me go over there and tell them it was my fault.

RON

It wasn't your fault.

TOBY

Ron.

RON

It wasn't your fault. It wasn't Gina's fault, it wasn't Charlie's fault, it wasn't anybody's fault, Toby. It was an act of madmen. You think a tent was going to stop them? We got the President in the car. We got Zoey in the car. And at 150 yards, five stories up, the shooters were down 9.2 seconds after the first shot was fired. I would never let you not let me protect the President. You tell us you don't like something, we figure out something else. It was an act of madmen. Anyway, the Secret Service doesn't comment on procedure.

TOBY

Okay.

Ron walks away.

TOBY

Good job last night.

RON

Thank you.

Toby sits down on a bench and sighs heavily.

THE WEST WING

“IN THE SHADOW OF TWO GUNMEN PART 2”

WRITTEN BY: AARON SORKIN

DIRECTED BY: THOMAS SCHLAMME

[hawkp]

Imagine Josh, Sam, Toby, and C.J. as Ben, Chris, Ron, and Leslie.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Last year, after Disney had the temerity to issue a statement opposing one of his prized legislative initiatives, Ron DeSantis punished the company by removing its self-governing status. (DeSantis justified the maneuver as a removal of unjustified privileges, but he had not previously opposed Disney’s status and made little attempt to disguise its nakedly retaliatory nature).

On Monday, he took matters much further. DeSantis appointed a board to oversee Disney. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is stacked with DeSantis cronies, including Bridget Ziegler, a proponent of his education policies; Ron Peri, who heads the Christian ministry the Gathering USA; and Michael Sasso, president of the Federalist Society’s Orlando chapter.

While the board handles infrastructure and maintenance, DeSantis boasted that it could use its leverage to force Disney to stop “trying to inject woke ideology” on children.

“When you lose your way, you’ve got to have people that are going to tell you the truth,” DeSantis proclaimed. “So we hope they can get back on. But I think all of these board members very much would like to see the type of entertainment that all families can appreciate.”

It is worth pausing a moment to grasp the full breadth of what is going on here. First, DeSantis established the principle that he can and will use the power of the state to punish private firms that exercise their First Amendment right to criticize his positions. Now he is promising to continue exerting state power to pressure the firm to produce content that comports with his own ideological agenda.

Whether he is successful remains to be seen. But a few things ought to be clear. First, DeSantis’s treatment of Disney is not a one-off but a centerpiece of his legacy in Florida. He has repeatedly invoked the episode in his speeches, and his allies have held it up as evidence of his strength and dominance. The Murdoch media empire, which is functionally an arm of the DeSantis campaign, highlighted the Disney conquest in a New York Post front page and a Fox & Friends segment and DeSantis touted his move in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Second, DeSantis’s authoritarian methods have met with vanishingly little resistance within his party. The only detectable Republican pushback has come from New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who warned, “Look, Ron’s a very good Governor. But I’m just trying to remind folks what we are at our core. And if we’re trying to beat the Democrats at being big-government authoritarians, remember what’s going to happen. Eventually, they’ll have power … and then they’ll start penalizing conservative businesses and conservative nonprofits and conservative ideas.” (Of course, this warning holds only if Republicans believe they will have to relinquish power. If DeSantis can truly follow the example of Viktor Orbán, losing power becomes only a theoretical risk.)

And third, DeSantis has been very explicit about his belief that he sees his methods in Florida as a blueprint for a national agenda. So there is every reason to believe that, if elected president, DeSantis would use government power to force both public and private institutions to toe his line. Speaking out against him, or even producing content he disapproves of, would become a financially risky proposition.

Part of what makes DeSantis so dangerous is that Donald Trump created a very defined idea of authoritarianism in the minds of his critics. His refusal to accept the 2020 presidential-election results was indeed a dangerous attack on democratic legitimacy — but this especially notorious episode has overshadowed his other efforts to abuse state power. Trump wielded federal regulations to punish the owners of the Washington Post and CNN for coverage he disapproved of and used diplomatic leverage to extort Ukraine into smearing his political rival. Republicans either supported or ignored these abuses of power.

To whatever extent they have principled objections to authoritarianism, those objections are limited almost entirely to fomenting a violent mob to overturn an election. And while inciting an insurrection is extremely dangerous, it hardly exhausts the scope of illiberal tools available to a sufficiently ruthless executive.

Damon Linker recently criticized liberals for unfairly calling DeSantis as bad as Trump. Linker’s prediction that a second Trump administration would be more dangerous than a first DeSantis administration might be correct. But it’s hard for me to understand how he can state this so confidently when he acknowledges DeSantis’s illiberal intentions and lack of democratic scruples. Comparing the relative evils of two authoritarian-minded leaders seems to be mainly an exercise in guesswork.

A year ago, I wrote a long profile of DeSantis, in which his deep-rooted distrust of liberal democracy was a major theme. Last fall, I attended the National Conservatism Conference, where the attendees laid out rather plainly their ambition to turn DeSantis into a model for a ruthless, illiberal party that would use the organs of the state to crush its enemies. Since those pieces appeared, DeSantis’s actions have made me more, not less, concerned.

Whether DeSantis would actually do more damage to American democracy in office than Trump could remains hard to say. Perhaps, perhaps not. But we should recognize that he is not putting himself forward as a critic of Trump’s authoritarianism. He is promising, on the contrary, to exceed it.

[giveemhell-leonbaby]

hiiiiiiiiiii leo stans !!! sry to keep u all waiting, ik i’ve been delaying posts almost as long as the white house wanted to delay nixon’s trials lol!! 

sooooo as u all may know there was some past beef between me and another prominent figure in the leon jaworski fan community a while back. 

i want to apologize to @leonjaworskiluvrgrlll for some comments and disagreements we’ve had. 

i’ve recently read thru the transcripts of leo’s interviews with bob and carl (eeeeeeee!!! u guys it was soooooooo cute omggggg he told a lil story abt his grandson!!!!! ugh and theres SOOOOO much DRAMA!! ) and it rly made me reflect on the leo content i’ve put out here. i was operating off of limited information and fell prey to some flash judgements inappropriate for someone committed to a man of the law (remember: “no one -- absolutely no one -- is above the law” 💖💖💞💞💞💞💗💗💗💕💕💕💖💖💖).

@leonjaworskiluvrgrlll​ and i have since reconciled and realized there’s someone even better for our baby than nixon OR sirica -- al haig!!! 

leon and al had “an unusual working relationship” 👀👀👀👀 sooooooo u may be getting some content abt that *real* soon from ljlgrrl & i !!! <3333 

[jebbiearchive]

[cyarskj1899]

The moms for liberty group are the modern day daughters of the confederacy, klanned karenhood, daughters of the devil

I would have hated to have them as my mother, heck my mother couldn’t relate to them

the moms for liberty aren’t worthy of being called mothers, they’re monsters. Or better yet moms-ters

Olivia Little at MMFA:

Moms for Liberty's ambitious plan to influence legislation, as revealed by internal documents obtained by Media Matters, is proving successful in states across the country.

Moms for Liberty is best known for its efforts to loudly overtake and intimidate public schools, but unbeknownst to many the group was terrorizing school boards while simultaneously planting a sophisticated state legislative advocacy infrastructure that it’s now using to strategically attack LGBTQ rights.

Media Matters acquired Moms for Liberty’s legislative advocacy blueprint, a 17-page resource guide detailing the group’s elaborate state legislative plan. It confirms that Moms for Liberty has formally established a legislative program and expanded its organizational jurisdiction from school boards to state legislatures. The document provides detailed instructions on how to establish meetings and relationships with legislators, along with guidance on creating calls to action and developing state legislative agendas. 

[...]

This year, Moms for Liberty members across the country have used their legislative advocacy network and partnerships with conservative politicians to wage a war against the LGBTQ community.  On June 6, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated Moms for Liberty as an antigovernment extremist group.

Florida GOP Vice Chairman Christian Ziegler, who is also the husband of Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, has described Moms for Liberty as “foot soldiers” for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Thus it’s no surprise that the group is spreading DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ campaign all over the country.

Anti-LGBTQ+/anti-student inclusion hate group Moms For Liberty is helping out efforts to pass anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the country.

[ralfmaximus]

Bridget Ziegler helped Ron DeSantis write the "don't say gay" law. Now she's admitted to consensual sex with a woman who's accused her husband of rape. The scandal threatens to bring them all down.

You read that right. Ultraconservative founders of Moms for Liberty got caught doing polygamy AND rape. Whatever you think is going on with these people, it's worse.

Please be aware I do not shame them for their poly lifestyle. No, it's all about the breathtaking hypocrisy of these jackasses trying to enforce moral codes they themselves ignore.

Moms for Liberty, btw, is the primary group driving library book bans across the nation. They print newsletters with Hitler quotes. They are literally book-burning fascists.

[mariacallous]

Moms for Liberty, the extremist “parental rights group,” was supposed to help the Republican Party regain the White House. In July, former president Donald Trump called the anti-LGBTQ group with 300 active chapters across the county a “grassroots juggernaut.” They are credited with forcing schools to lift mask mandates, banning books featuring LGBTQ characters, and supporting anti-trans laws and policies across the country. The group was on track to be instrumental to the GOP in the 2024 election.

But, over the course of the past five months, the group has begun to unravel.

Experts have questioned the claims about the size of the group’s membership, and individual members have been exposed as sex offenders and acolytes of the Proud Boys. Then, last month, Moms for Liberty cofounder Bridget Ziegler admitted in a police interview to being in a relationship with her husband and another woman. The interview was conducted after the woman in question alleged that Ziegler’s husband, Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, had raped her.

Ziegler’s husband has denied the allegations and refused to resign from his position as GOP chair, despite calls from Florida governor Ron DeSantis and other state Republicans to do so. Ziegler is also a member of the Sarasota County School Board, and has been instrumental in ushering in Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill, pushing a Christian agenda in public schools, and banning the teaching of critical race theory. On Tuesday night, the board voted 4–1 in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for her to resign, marking a rapid fall from grace for Ziegler and a potential fatal blow to Moms for Liberty.

“The impact of the Zeigler scandal has been enormous on the Moms for Liberty structure,” Liz Mikitarian, the founder of the activist group STOP Moms for Liberty, which closely tracks the group’s activities, tells WIRED. “We see chapters moving away or taking a break, chapter leadership questioning their roles and scrambling at the national level to save their ‘mom’ brand. The organization is trying to distance itself from the Zieglers, but this is impossible because the Zieglers are interwoven into the very fabric of Moms for Liberty.”

The group was founded in late 2020 by Ziegler, Tina Descovich, and Tiffany Justice. Ziegler’s close ties to the GOP establishment both locally and nationally helped the group get recognition, propelling their grassroots efforts quickly to the national stage. Initially founded to counter mask mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic, the group’s plans were straightforward: They wanted to support school board candidates who pushed their anti-LGBTQ agenda while advocating for the banning of books that feature people of color or members of the LGBTQ community. The group’s growth was extraordinary. In three years, Moms for Liberty claims to have established 300 chapters in 48 states, with a membership of 130,000 parents. While Ziegler resigned from the group in 2021, she has remained a close ally of the group, speaking at its annual conferences and pushing its agenda from her school board seat.

In a sign of just how coveted an endorsement from the group had become in GOP circles, Trump was joined at their convention this summer by GOP presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur and great replacement conspiracy proponent Vivek Ramaswamy.

The group’s support from the GOP came despite widespread reports about the harassment and intimidation campaigns that Moms for Liberty members conducted against school board members, teachers, superintendents, and even other parents. These allegations led the Southern Poverty Law Center to label Moms for Liberty an extremist group earlier this year.

But in recent months, controversies and closer scrutiny of the group’s claims have significantly tarnished the group’s image.

Just days after the Moms for Liberty convention in Philadelphia, Heath Brown, a professor of public policy at the City University of New York, wrote on Medium that while Moms for Liberty claims to be a national movement, the vast majority of its membership is concentrated in just four states: South Carolina, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida.

“This suggests that the political power is considerable and expanding in some states, but nearly absent and even waning in others,” Brown wrote.

Research from the Brookings Institution published in October confirmed this, and found that while Moms for Liberty was attracting members in Democratic strongholds, it was winning school board elections only in staunchly conservative regions of the country.

While its rapid growth may have suggested that Moms for Liberty would sweep school board races nationwide in November, 70 percent of its endorsed candidates lost their races, according to an analysis from the American Federation of Teachers. Weeks after the embarrassing election losses, the group was forced to remove two Kentucky chapter chairs from leadership positions after the women posed for photos with members of the Proud Boys militia. The group has a long history of associating with members of the Proud Boys, and Ziegler herself had to deny links to the group after she posed with two members at a victory party after she was elected to the Sarasota County School Board.

Then, the group removed Phillip Fisher Jr., a pastor who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia’s Moms for Liberty chapter, after it was revealed he was a registered sex offender.

Then came the revelations about the Zieglers.

Initially, the Moms for Liberty groups circled the wagons and slammed the media attention on the story, claiming in a statement on X that the sexual assault allegation made against Christian Ziegler was ​​”another attempt to ruin the reputation of a strong woman fighting for America.”

But in early December, a chapter chair in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, who was also the state legislative lead for the group, announced she and the other members were splitting from the national group to form their own organization because of the leadership’s response to the scandal.

In the weeks since, those who are closely tracking the group’s activities say chapters have gone quiet. Some, including several chapters in Maryland, have been removed from the Moms for Liberty website and their online activity has slowed to a crawl.

“Moms for Liberty has been repeatedly exposed as hypocrites over the past months, but I believe these new issues will be insurmountable to them,” Karen Svoboda, cofounder of Defense of Democracy, a group created to counter Moms for Liberty’s actions, tells WIRED. “Moms for Liberty, the powerhouse that wreaked such havoc on our communities and schools, is becoming undone by their own hubris.”

Despite the vote against her on Tuesday night, Ziegler did not resign, and said the resolution “has no teeth” given that the only person who can remove a school board member is the governor. And given that DeSantis has not asked Ziegler to resign from her position on a Disney oversight board he appointed her to, it’s unlikely he will force her to resign from the Sarasota County School Board.

However, Ziegler has resigned from her position as vice president of School Board Leadership Programs at the Leadership Institute, the highly influential conservative group led by Morton Blackwell, who also cofounded the secretive Council for National Policy. The Leadership Institute has been a major funder of Moms for Liberty since its inception, and Blackwell’s apparent lack of faith in Ziegler could spell trouble for her and Moms for Liberty.

“There are a lot of signs that Blackwell holds the ultimate power over Moms for Liberty,” Maurice Cunningham, a former political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston who has tracked Moms for Liberty’s growth closely, tells WIRED. “He will decide Moms for Liberty’s future, and Moms for Liberty cannot continue if he pulls the plug.”

Moms for Liberty did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about the impact the Ziegler scandal is having on the group or on their membership numbers. Instead, a spokesperson for the group pointed WIRED to a statement issued by Descovich and Justice in the days after the Ziegler scandal broke, distancing the group from Ziegler while also praising her for “remaining an avid warrior for parental rights across the country.”

[alternateworldcomics]

A daily newspaper comic strip version of Dragnet distributed by the Los Angeles Mirror Syndicate ran in newspapers from June 23, 1952, to May 21, 1955

Written by Dragnet scripter Jack Robinson (uncredited) with art by Joe Sheiber (June 23, 1952-Sept. 20, 1952), Bill Ziegler (Sept. 22, 1952-January 9, 1954) and Mel Keefer (Jan. 11, 1954-May 21, 1955). Comics historian Ron Goulart, in his book 'The Funnies' states the frequent turnover of artists on the strip was due to Webb's desire to find someone 'who could draw him as good looking as he thought he ought to be.'

While "Dragnet" never made it into comic book form in America (seems like a natural for Dell's Four-Color Comics) there was a five issue comic book published in Australia made up of the newspaper strip in 1954.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Capitalism: trickling down bootstraps since the Industrial Revolution.

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 6, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 7, 2023

In the Washington Post today, Marianne LeVine, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Josh Dawsey reported that the Trump camp is eager to get people to stop focusing on Trump’s authoritarian talk, noting that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says the presidential candidate was just joking when he said he would be a dictator on the first day of a return to the White House. While the Republican base appears to like Trump’s threats against the people they have come to hate, two Trump advisers told the reporters that “recent stories about his plans for a second term are not viewed as helpful for the general election.”

Republicans have also moved quickly to cut ties with Florida Republican Party chair Christian Ziegler, who is under police investigation for rape. Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, co-founded Moms for Liberty, an organization that has focused on removing from schools books that they find objectionable, generally books by or about racial or ethnic minorities or LGBTQ+ people. Often Moms for Liberty members have implied, or even claimed, that those trying to protect school libraries are sexual predators or “groomers.” Ziegler herself has been active in shaping anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the state.

But the police and court documents about the case revealed that the Zieglers and the woman Ziegler allegedly raped had participated in a three-way sexual relationship in the past. The rape allegedly occurred after they had set up another encounter that Bridget could not make. The woman then canceled, telling Ziegler “I was mainly in it for her.” He went to her home anyway.

The story of a key anti-LGBTQ+ activist engaging in same-sex activity as part of a threesome sent Moms for Liberty hurrying to say that Bridget Ziegler was no longer on their board (although both Zieglers were still on their advisory board) and purge her name from their website. And though no charges have yet been filed, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has called on Christian Ziegler to resign from his position at the head of the state Republican Party. 

The Zieglers helped to tie the Republican Party to Moms for Liberty shortly after the organization formed in January 2021, and DeSantis was very much on board, apparently seeing their message of taking the war against “woke” to the schools as a political winner. But, as Amanda Marcotte pointed out in Salon, the 2022 midterms revealed that most voters did not like the extremism of that group and that it was a political liability. 

The fact that DeSantis is dropping his former ally Ziegler so fast suggests that DeSantis is eager to divorce himself from both the story and from the extremism of Moms for Liberty. 

The Trump Republicans took another hit today as well, when a grand jury in the state of Nevada charged six people who falsely posed as electors in 2020 in order to file fake electoral votes for Trump to replace the state’s real votes for now-President Joe Biden. The six Republicans charged with filing false documents include the chair and the vice chair of the Nevada Republican Party. If convicted, they face up to nine years in prison and $15,000 in fines. 

Nevada is the third state to charge the fake electors with crimes. Georgia and Michigan have also done so. 

Ten fake electors in Wisconsin today settled a civil lawsuit over their own participation in Trump’s false-elector scheme. The settlement involved correcting the historical record. The ten agreed to withdraw their paperwork with the false information, explain in writing to the federal offices that the filings had been “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results,” and acknowledge that Biden won the 2020 election. Going forward, they agreed never again to serve as presidential electors in an election in which Trump is running. 

But while there are signs that even leading Republicans recognize that the extremism of the Trump Republicans is unpopular in the country, Trump Republicans are tightening their hold on Congress. Today former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that he will resign from Congress at the end of this month. Far-right MAGA Republicans ousted McCarthy from the speaker’s chair in October.

Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), a McCarthy ally who took over as acting House speaker after McCarthy’s removal, announced yesterday that he had changed his plans from earlier this year and will not run for reelection.    

While hardly moderates—both refused to work with Democrats either to pass legislation or to elect a speaker—they appear to be ceding ground to the MAGA Republicans. 

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone reported today that one of those MAGA Republicans, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), spoke freely Tuesday night at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., at a celebration for the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. Although the address was being livestreamed, Johnson apparently believed he was speaking privately. He told the audience that the Lord called him to be “a new Moses.”

Johnson, an evangelical Christian, told the audience that the U.S. is “engaged in a battle between worldviews” and “a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” He said he believed far-right Christians would prevail. 

The influence of Trump is also evident in the Senate, where there is broad, bipartisan support for supplemental funding for Ukraine, but where Republicans are refusing to pass such a measure without attaching to it an immigration package that overrides current law, replacing it with Trump’s immigration plans. Such plans could not pass on their own, as Democrats would stop them in the Senate. But by attaching them to a bill that is imperative for national security, Republicans hope to force Biden into it.

Democrats have repeatedly called for new immigration legislation, but their refusal to remake immigration policy as the hard-right wants has made Republicans balk. Now Democrats are still offering to negotiate a reasonable package, but as Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said earlier this week: “I think there’s a misunderstanding on the part of Senator Schumer and some of our Democratic friends…. This is not a traditional negotiation, where we expect to come up with a bipartisan compromise on the border. This is a price that has to be paid in order to get the supplemental.”

In a speech this afternoon—just a day after Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) finally permitted the Senate to fill 425 senior positions in the U.S. military and while he is still preventing 11 top-level positions from being filled—President Biden called it “stunning that we’ve gotten to this point…. Republicans in Congress…are willing to give [Russian president Vladimir] Putin the greatest gift he could hope for and abandon our global leadership not just to Ukraine, but beyond that.” 

“If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” Biden warned. “It’s important to see the long run here. He’s going to keep going. He’s made that pretty clear. If Putin attacks a NATO Ally—if he keeps going and then he attacks a NATO Ally—well, we’ve committed as a NATO member that we’d defend every inch of NATO territory. Then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops—American troops fighting Russian troops if he moves into other parts of NATO. 

“Make no mistake: Today’s vote is going to be long remembered. And history is going to judge harshly those who turn their back on freedom’s cause.”

“Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine’s funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies,” he said. 

Biden reiterated that he and the Democrats are eager to pass new immigration legislation, but “Republicans think they can get everything they want without any bipartisan compromise.  That’s not the answer.... And now they’re willing to literally kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security in the process.” He begged Republicans to get past partisan divisions and step up to “our responsibilities as a leading nation in the world.” 

Hours later, Senate Republicans voted against the supplemental aid package.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) tried to stick to GOP talking points during a Meet The Press appearance on Sunday, but moderator Chuck Todd wasn’t having any of it.

Todd repeatedly pressed Johnson on the Republican Party’s obsession with investigating Hunter Biden, questioning why the party sought to examine the actions of a private citizen who didn’t appear to have committed a crime.

“Senator, do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed?” Todd asked. “It is not a crime to make money off of your last name.”

Johnson pointed to a report written by Marco Polo USA, an organization co-founded by former Trump White House adviser Garrett Ziegler (famous for blasting the Jan. 6 committee with profanities and doxxing alleged FBI agents), that alluded to “potential” crimes committed by the younger Biden.

“Let me stop you there,” Todd insisted. “This is potential. Potential is innuendo.”

Johnson tried to characterize his comments as providing “just some information” but Todd would not have it, asking the Senator if he was just as bothered by Jared Kushner taking a loan from the Qatari government while working on Middle East policy in the White House.

After an awkward moment of silence, Johnson side-stepped. “I’m concerned about getting to the truth,” he said. “I don’t target individuals. I target the truth.”

When Todd pressed him on the fact that he’d just targeted Hunter Biden repeatedly, Johnson simply changed subjects all together.

“Part of the problem, and this is pretty obvious to anybody watching this, is you don’t invite me on to interview me. You invite me on to argue with me,” Johnson complained. “[Conservatives] were suppressed. [Conservatives] were censored. [The FBI] interfered in the 2020 election. Conservatives understand that. Unfortunately, liberals and the media don’t. And part of the reasons are our politics are inflamed, is we do not have an unbiased media. We don’t. It’s unfortunate. I’m all for a free press.”

“Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want,” Todd shot back. “I understand it’s part of your identity.”

[eminems-skittles]

cassie's 1k follower celebration!!!

i never posted for when i hit 1k so it's time to celebrate!!!!! thank you all so much ily all!!!!!!! rules for requesting: must be following me (i mean you don't have to but it is preferred if you are gonna request), include preferred gender for reader (fem or gn!) and no smut!!!

blurb and headcanon requests will be open until midnight (PST) on november 26!!!

==========

people i am writing for 8 mile: b-rabbit friends: chandler bing, joey tribbiani gilmore girls: jess mariano harry potter: harry potter, ron weasley, fred weasley, george weasley, draco malfoy, oliver wood, cedric diggory little women: jo march, amy march, theodore 'laurie' laurence the mandalorian: din djarin marvel: loki, peter parker (andrew or tom), bucky barnes new girl: nick miller stranger things: steve harrington, robin buckley streamers: dreamwastaken, georgenotfound, sapnap, karl jacobs, quackity, punz, foolishgamers, wilbur soot suicide squad: rick flag shameless: lip gallagher top gun: maverick: rooster, hangman, phoenix, bob the west wing: josh lyman, charlie young, cj cregg, will bailey, sam seaborn, toby ziegler

prompts (requests don't need to include one of these prompts)

headcanon prompts: (if requesting headcanons you can request multiple people)

cooking with them

taking care of you when you are sick

how they act when they have a crush

little things they do in their relationship

how they realize they have feelings

different ways they cuddle

first i love you

what your songs/playlist as a couple would be

snow days with them

traveling

halloween with them

christmas with them

how they are with pda

fake dating

friends to lovers

dialogue prompts

"you got me flowers?"

"i just wanted to make sure you’re okay."

"aw, did you miss me?"

"you’re lucky that you’re cute."

"hold still. this might sting a little"

"is that my shirt?"

"c'mere you."

“Come over here and make me.”

“Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”

“I almost lost you.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Don’t you ever do that again!”

“Kiss me.”

“It could be worse.”

“You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.”

"you could punch me in the face and i would still want you ngl.”

“are you cold? here you go. come here.""please stay."

"let me take care of you today. don’t do anything in return, just let me."

again, your request doesn't need to include any of these, they are here for ideas!

mutuals please boost &lt;3 tagging some people: @yelenasdog @azzail @amenityexe @meloncholy-hussy @cj-reluv @gummiwas @emilysprentisss