Somehow he wasn’t referring to his insurrectionist wife Ginni.

Monday, May 9, 2022
BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA


** -Mayor Eric Adams ([link removed]) , justifying the detention of a mango stand owner
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In terms of pure symbolic power, Ukraine has recently dealt its Russian invaders a series of crushing defeats.
* Actually in some cases, it’s more than purely symbolic power. On Sunday, senior U.S. diplomatic officials in Ukraine, including Charge d’Affaires Kristina Kvien, returned to the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, ([link removed]) almost three months after leaving the facility in anticipation of the Russian invasion. The visit was timed to commemorate Victory in Europe day, but is consistent with reports that the Biden administration is trying to accelerate the permanent reopening of the embassy ([link removed]) and the resumption of the diplomatic mission there.

* The activity at the U.S. embassy coincided with the actual reopening of the Canadian embassy in Kyiv, ([link removed]) which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended during a surprise visit to the city. Other surprise visitors to Ukraine included First Lady Jill Biden, ([link removed]) and Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenskay, who has been in hiding since the invasion began.

* Other inspiring images will have a more meaningful impact on the lives of Ukrainians. This Washington Post article details the incredibly rapid rebuilding of Bucha, ([link removed]) which just weeks ago was the focus of international outrage, when the expulsion of Russian forces allowed the world to see how inhumane and destructive Russian occupation had been.

It's much harder to rack up symbolic victories, when you're the invading country, and your war is based on lies, and you're losing.
* Despite widespread speculation to the contrary, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not use Russia's May 9 Victory Day celebration as a pretext to turn his "special military operation" into an official war, which would have allowed him to marshal many more resources toward pulverizing and trying to overtake Ukraine. He did, however, use the occasion to rant about "cancel culture" and air other anti-Western grievances, ([link removed]) which counts as a huge win in Republican circles.

* The palpable imbalance seems to be having positive feedback effects, too. The latest polling from Finland finds an incredible 76 percent of Finns support joining NATO ([link removed]) . In France, President Emmanuel Macron proposed the idea of creating a European political community, ([link removed]) that would allow countries that don't want to, or can't, join the European Union (such as England and Ukraine) to nevertheless be part of a diplomatic alignment of democracies.

It's been such a rough stretch for Putin he may have actually contemplated sneaking aboard his yacht and living out his days at sea. Unfortunately, Italy seems to have confiscated that vessel ([link removed]) . No one can say what he'll do next, or how long this contrast will hold, but if he's even a little open to the idea that maybe this little war of his hasn't been worth the trouble, there's never been more evidence for it than right now.
Check out the latest episode of Offline ([link removed]) ! This week, Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s All In, sits down with Jon to talk about the ways the internet has reshaped what we can hear online, his distinction between attention and recognition, and makes the case that this new era isn’t just bad for our society, it’s bad for our souls. New episodes of Offline ([link removed]) drop every Sunday wherever you get your podcasts.
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A confluence of protectionist populism and Restoring Normalcy™ seems to have imperiled the solar industry ([link removed]) just as the U.S. has reached the crossroads of the clean-energy transition, and faces the imperative to reduce inflation. The precipitating issue is a Commerce Department investigation into whether foreign solar manufacturers have skirted U.S. sanctions on Chinese-manufactured solar panels and cells, which are heavily subsidized by the Chinese government. That investigation could result in the U.S. assessing tariffs on those exporters retroactively, which has already driven up costs for importers, before the investigation has run its course. Senior officials, including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, would reportedly like to step in to remove the logjam and restore solar industry capacity, but they’re hamstrung by the Biden administration’s dual commitments to
refrain from Trump-era meddling in federal investigations and to support American manufacturers.
* Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged that Republicans might ban abortion nationwide ([link removed]) if and when they retake full control of Washington, which is something Sinanchima might want to think about.

* Democrats are teaming up with Republicans ([link removed]) to crack down on pro-abortion protests outside of Supreme Court justices’ homes ([link removed]) .

* Here's another right-wing Supreme Court leak meant to lock in a ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade ([link removed]) .

* The White House has reportedly asked Congress to leave COVID-19 funding out if its forthcoming Ukraine aid package, ([link removed]) in response to Republican objections—meanwhile the supply of next-gen, Omicron specific COVID-19 vaccines will be severely restricted if Congress doesn’t pass more COVID-19 funding ([link removed]) .

* Republicans led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have begun threatening to punish companies ([link removed]) that help their employees who may soon have to travel out of state to have legal abortions.

* The CIA has warned the Bolsonaro government in Brazil to stop telling lies meant to sow doubt about his coming election, ([link removed]) the latest example of how Donald Trump severely damaged America’s moral authority to advocate for good things around the world.

* In other right wing leaders, it looks like when the current president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, leaves office, he will be replaced by a ticket ([link removed]) led by the grandson of Ferdinand Marcos and his own daughter, Sara Duterte.

* A federal judge has yeeted Donald Trump’s sad-trombone lawsuit against Twitter for kicking him off the platform ([link removed]) . Womp womp.

* Michigan Republicans have purged basically all of their election officials who rejected the Big Lie ([link removed]) .

* The prominent, Trump-affiliated, far-right social media figure Paul Joseph Watson was secretly recorded saying ([link removed]) he wanted to “wipe Jews off the face of the Earth” and other, similarly charming things at a party recently.

* QAnon adherents have begun rounding up migrant children near the southern border and interrogating them about their families ([link removed]) in search of evidence to support their baseless sex-trafficking conspiracy theories.

* Clarence Thomas rued that people are unwilling to “live with outcomes we don’t agree with,” ([link removed]) but somehow he wasn’t referring to his insurrectionist wife Ginni.

* Former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), who lost his seat to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) is now a tony-nominated musical producer ([link removed]) .

From the fascinating-if-unsurprising annals: Partisan animus in the U.S. is frequently driven by misperceptions about how widespread extremism within the political opposition ([link removed]) . From there it follows: partisan polarization as observed in the U.S. doesn’t derive entirely from the substantive objectives of political parties; there is also an element of “false polarization” in the mix, driven by these misperceptions, which in turn drive animus. Multiple mechanisms underlie this phenomenon, but media fixation on examples of partisan extremism is one major source of “false polarization,” not necessarily because it misleads people about the existence of extremism, but it persuades people that the most extreme views of the opposing party are more widespread than they are. The authors of this study only acknowledged the widespread literature on asymmetric polarization in passing, but the implication (and, well, the obvious read if you pay any attention) that false
polarization is a greater problem on the right, where agitprop, lying, and the smearing of political opponents is much more common.
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It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours.

What A Day is sponsored by BetterHelp and readers of this newsletter get 10 percent off their first month at BetterHelp.com/crooked ([link removed]) .

Residents of Austin, TX, overwhelmingly adopted a ballot initiative prohibiting police enforcement of marijuana possession laws, ([link removed]) and execution of no-knock warrants.

The journalists of Ukraine have won a Pulitzer Prize, special citation award ([link removed]) .

Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC) defended his vote to impeach Donald Trump during a Republican primary debate, ([link removed]) exposing almost every other Republican running for re-election as a coward, nihilist, or insurrectionist sympathizer.

Cool Webb space telescope images just dropped ([link removed]) .


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