This guy Rep Dan Crenshaw is a piece of work…total T defender…and loyalist who has this book he is promoting. Fortitude.
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Asian Giant Hornets can utterly decimate a bee colony; Asian honeybees use a desperate method called the bee ball to kill them, but it only works if they get the scout. Our European honey bees have ZERO defense. They must not be allowed to settle here.
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Tim Bray, a well known senior engineer and Vice President at Amazon has “quit in dismay” because Amazon has been “firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.” In an open letter on his website, Bray, who has worked at the company for nearly six years, called the company “chickenshit” for firing and disparaging employees who have organized protests. He also said the firings are "designed to create a climate of fear."
Amazon’s strategy throughout the coronavirus crisis has been to fire dissenters and disparage them both in the press and behind closed doors. There have been dozens of confirmed coronavirus cases at warehouses around the country, and workers have repeatedly said the company isn’t doing enough to protect them. Last week, Amazon ended a program that allowed workers to take unlimited unpaid time off if they fear getting sick from the coronavirus. Last Friday, Amazon workers together with Target, FedEx, Instacart, and Whole Foods workers, went on strike to protest their working conditions.
In statements to Motherboard, Amazon has said its own protesting workers are “spreading misinformation and making false claims about Amazon,” and that it “objects to the irresponsible actions of labor groups.” Last month, Amazon fired Chris Smalls, an Amazon worker in New York City. In a meeting, Amazon executives said that they believe Smalls is not “smart or articulate,” and that publicly they would focus on “laying out the case for why the organizer’s conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal,” according to leaked notes from that meeting obtained by VICE News.
In his resignation letter, Bray said that “firing whistleblowers isn’t just a side-effect of macroeconomic forces, nor is it intrinsic to the function of free markets. It’s evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture. I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison.”
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Yes, “look at the science.”
During his campaign, he told CNN: “I had an uncle who went to MIT who is a top professor. Dr. John Trump. A genius. It’s in my blood. I’m smart.” He told the Boston Globe that he and his uncle “have very good genetics.”
A family friend who knew John Trump personally said the scientist would have recoiled at Donald Trump’s claim of scientific knowledge when promoting unproven drugs and other treatments.
“The John Trump I knew would have been horrified,” said John Van de Graaff, whose father, the famed scientist Robert Van de Graaff, was John Trump’s longtime business partner.
Van de Graaff told The Washington Post that he joined his father in many conversations with John Trump, and recalled him as a man dedicated to the rigorous testing of ideas who would not have approved of the way the president has blurted out dangerous supposed remedies for the novel coronavirus.
“He would have been distressed by a great deal of what President Trump has done,” Van de Graaff said. “He would have said, ‘Look at the science!’ ”
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg from her bed - bearing down with her mental might on the notion that Companies could regulate whether employees could get contraception because it might not fit the employer’s stance.
She is a fighter for women…and against the ‘system.’
Hurry home Ruth!
The liberal justice repeatedly pressed on the notion that women would lose their coverage even if they didn’t share the employers’ religious beliefs.
“This leaves the women to hunt for other government programs that might cover them,” she told Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who was arguing the case for the Trump administration. “And for those who are not covered by Medicaid or one of the other government programs, they can get contraceptive coverage only from paying out of their own pocket, which is exactly what Congress didn’t want to happen.”
“You have just tossed entirely to the wind what Congress thought was essential, that is that women be provided these services with no hassles, no cost to them,” she added later. “Instead, you are shifting the employer’s religious beliefs, the cost of that, onto these employees who do not share those religious beliefs.”
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This horrible crime will now go before a grand jury, it’s wild that it took this long. 
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She Said Anthony Fauci Sexually Assaulted Her. Now She Says Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Paid Her to Lie.
After failing to frame Robert Mueller, Elizabeth Warren, and others for sexual misconduct, the infamous Trumpster hoaxers tried to go after Fauci. But the woman they hired to play the victim had second thoughts.
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The Jobs Report Friday Will Be a Portrait of Devastation
For such numbers, there are no words.
Jobless rate soared to 14.7% in April as U.S. shed 20.5 million jobs amid coronavirus pandemic
The labor market has entered its darkest period since the Great Depression and many analysts believe it could take years to recover.
Employment Situation Summary
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Want to listen in to the Supreme Court hearings??? Today Monday May 11th, they are streaming on CNN - two cases.
I am just getting ready for tomorrow’s cases - May 12th - T’s taxes via Mazars and NY DA Vance will be heard.
Mazars case
And NY DA Cyrus Vance Case
RESCHEDULED FOR ARGUMENT on Tuesday, May 12, 2020. VIDED.
Cases today - May 11th
The Supreme Court is continuing to hold oral arguments via teleconference due to the coronavirus pandemic. And in a historic first, it’s also allowing oral arguments to be aired live to the public.
Here’s what to know for Monday’s cases:
First Case: Jimcy McGirt v. Oklahoma
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET
Significance: Jimcy McGirt, a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, was convicted of raping a 4-year-old on what he says is a Creek reservation in Oklahoma. His lawyers say, however, that he was tried in the wrong court, because his crime occurred on Indian territory and the federal government, not the state has jurisdiction. Under federal law, major crimes committed by Indians on Indian country must be tried in federal court. One question before the court is whether a Creek reservation was established and if it was, whether Congress ever moved to disestablish it.
If McGirt prevails, Oklahoma may not have jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians in the Eastern part of the state.
Participants: Ian H. Gershengorn, Riyaz A. Kanji, Mithun Mansinghani, Solicitor General , Oklahoma City. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler
Where to find it: CNN.com is streaming live.
Supreme Court examines discrimination lawsuits against religious schools
Second Case: Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Agnes Morrissey-Berru
Time: Immediately following McGirt v. Oklahoma; at approximately 11 a.m. ET
Significance: A dispute concerning two teachers who sought to file employment discrimination claims against the religious schools that fired them. The justices will discuss the scope of the so called “ministerial exception” that holds that under the First Amendment the government cannot interfere with a church’s employment decisions.
Participants: Eric C. Rassbach, Assistant to the Solicitor General Morgan L. Ratner, Jeffrey Fisher
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Supreme Court’s Oral Arguments for May 12th…
The Supreme Court hears oral argument via teleconference due to the coronavirus pandemic. This oral argument involves consolidated cases dealing with congressional subpoenas to third party companies for President Trump’s financial records.
Supreme Court Oral Argument on Congressional Subpoenas for President Trump’s Financial Records
Trump v. Vance Oral Argument
The Supreme Court hears oral argument via teleconference due to the coronavirus pandemic. This case involves presidential immunity and the New York District Attorney’s investigation into the Trump Organization.
Where to Listen:
Supreme Court Oral Argument on Congressional Subpoenas for President Trump’s Financial Records
Program ID:
471675-1
Category:
Public Affairs Event
Format:
Judicial Proceeding
Location:
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Will Air:
May 12, 2020 | 10:00am EDT | C-SPAN 1
Airing Details
May 12, 2020 | 10:00am EDT | C-SPAN 1
May 12, 2020 | 10:00am EDT | C-SPAN RADIO
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Looks like Trump’s Taxes may be coming to us…Gorsuch is a skeptic of T’s lawyers.
Ginsburg, Sotomayer, Kagan, Breyer are coming on strong in this hearing from T’s lawyers.
Supreme Court Hearings Live blogs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/12/trump-taxes-scotus-hearing-live/
Various tweets to watch for…
Lawrence Tribe - Law Professor
Hearing #2 Trump v Vance
NYT blog
Charlie Savage
Washington Correspondent
Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are pushing Sekulow to explain why Clinton v. Jones, which the Supreme Court unanimously permitted to go forward, was less burdensome than Vance’s grand jury subpoena. The former required the sitting president to provide a deposition and the latter is just asking a third party to turn over records about the president. Sekulow argues civil cases are different than criminal investigations (potential monetary damages versus potential imprisonment).
12:05 PM ET
Peter Baker
White House Correspondent
Sekulow seems to indicate that a criminal case should have to meet a higher standard before burdening a president than a civil case because it could result in loss of liberty not just a monetary damage. But courts have traditionally said that a criminal process has a higher need for information than a civil case.
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Whoa.
Angela Merkel says she has ‘hard evidence’ that Russia hacked the German Parliament and stole her emails
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I’ve wondered why so many are willing to think that the Russian’s didn’t hack the RNC when they hacked the DNC. I would guess there is a high probability that both were broken into.
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Oh, quite a few of us have long wondered about that. I remember stories early on that hinted that they did just that.
It would certainly explain some of the mysterious subservience, but blackmail need not be the only reason why people turn spineless.
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Heather Cox Richardson History Professor -
Worth a read
I’ve grown to hate Friday nights. Fridays themselves have been quiet lately, and then along about 10:00 pm… wham. The Friday night news dump.
Tonight’s news dump was Trump giving notice that he intends to fire yet another inspector general, this one from the State Department. Trump wants to replace Steve Linick, a career official from the Justice Department appointed to his position by President Barack Obama in 2013, with an ally of Vice President Mike Pence. Trump says he no longer has the “fullest confidence” in Linick. Trump plans to replace Linick with Stephen Akard, who was chief of staff for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation when Pence was Indiana governor.
Linick had issued a number of reports lately about Trump appointees retaliating against career employees. Even more important to Trump, perhaps, is that at the State Department, Linick oversaw Trump’s loyal Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Tonight, after news broke of Linick’s firing, Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted on an official account that Linick had just opened an investigation into Pompeo. MSNBC reporter Chris Hayes noted that “Engel is an extremely cautious politician. For him to put this out is mind-blowing.”
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy tweeted: “Using foreign aid to destroy rivals. Weaponizing the judiciary. Firing all the inspectors general. Democracies begin to die when a leader starts to destroy the limits on his power, and his faction decides that he is more important than the republic. Welcome to that moment.”
But Walter Schaub, who used to direct the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, points out that the law requires the president to give 30 days notice of such a removal because Congress intended for its members to be able to prevent exactly the sort of purge in which Trump is engaging. Republican Senators are required by law to stop this behavior… but they refuse. It is a mistake, Schaub points out, to consider this firing a done deal. Trump has to give notice so that Congress can weigh in. He has done so, and now it is in the hands of Congress, just as the previous notice that Trump was removing other inspector generals has been.
In other news, there is mounting pressure on the Justice Department to release the transcripts of the phone calls between Michael Flynn and Russian officials, both from people who believe the transcripts will exonerate him and from those who believe they will confirm his guilt. The Justice Department has released a trove of information about Flynn’s contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, including confidential memos and internal deliberations. But it steadfastly refuses to release the transcripts, despite an order from Judge Emmet Sullivan to do so. Sullivan has recently named retired federal Judge John Gleeson to review Flynn’s case.
A follow up to yesterday’s news about Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) stepping down from his position as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee during his investigation for insider trading: Before he stepped down, Burr submitted the final report of the committee on Russian interference in the 2016 election to the intelligence community for review so it can be declassified. That process could take many months, as it did for previous reports. In those cases, though, the committee did release a set of general findings before the final volume was available. Here… we’ll see.
The other big piece of news is that the House of Representatives has passed a new $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Both the president and Senate Republicans have said the bill is a non-starter; as such, it should be seen as a Democratic marker of the party’s priorities. The bill provides nearly $1 trillion for the state, local, and tribal governments that are suffering as the lack of tax revenue during this crisis is forcing them to slash social programs from their budgets. It provides direct payments to individuals, hazard pay for essential workers, money for coronavirus testing and contact tracing, unemployment benefits, housing support, student loan forgiveness, and food stamp money.
It also provides for universal mail-in ballots, and $25 billion for the United States Postal Service.
Meanwhile, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow has suggested reviving the economy not by putting money in the hands of ordinary Americans, but by slashing the 21% corporate tax rate, cutting it in half for companies willing to bring their operations back to the United States. The White House also wants liability protection for businesses that reopen, and a payroll tax cut. Such a cut would inject money into the economy immediately, but only by taking money that would otherwise fund social Security and Medicare.
The two approaches reveal very different visions of the way the economy works.
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You can sign up for this free newsletter at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
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Notes:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/state-department-inspector-general-fired-261536
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/15/politics/state-department-inspector-general-fired/index.html
Engel:
Engel statement: https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2020/5/engel-statement-on-the-firing-of-inspector-general-linick
Hayes:
Murphy:
Schaub:
[
Walter Shaub @waltshaub
This lawless administration is out of control. But it is only out of control because Republican Senators are fine with that. This is why it’s important to remember that Linick has NOT been fired. Trump has given 30 days notice of an INTENT to fire. Why did he do that? /1
Ned Price @nedprice
“I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo. Mr. Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation.” https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2020/5/engel-statement-on-the-firing-of-inspector-general-linick
May 16th 2020
House Foreign Affairs Committee @HouseForeign
Chris Hayes @chrislhayes
Chris Murphy @ChrisMurphyCTFlynn: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/politics/flynn-kislyak-transcripts-secret/index.html
Burr: https://www.snopes.com/ap/2020/05/15/burr-submits-final-russia-report-before-leaving-chairmanship/
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Obama’s speech for the 2020 grads…tell it!
That is right. 
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How the hell is this at all legal?
Georgia Republicans cancel election for state Supreme Court, meaning governor can appoint a Republican and keep the seat for another two years.
The GOP once again proves if you can’t win, cheat.
Jane Roe’s Deathbed Confession: Anti-Abortion Conversion ‘All an Act’ Paid for by the Christian Right
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Facebook Knows It Encourages Division. Top Executives Nixed Solutions.
Even before the teams’ 2017 creation, Facebook researchers had found signs of trouble. A 2016 presentation that names as author a Facebook researcher and sociologist, Monica Lee, found extremist content thriving in more than one-third of large German political groups on the platform. Swamped with racist, conspiracy-minded and pro-Russian content, the groups were disproportionately influenced by a subset of hyperactive users, the presentation notes. Most of them were private or secret.
The high number of extremist groups was concerning, the presentation says. Worse was Facebook’s realization that its algorithms were responsible for their growth. The 2016 presentation states that “64% of all extremist group joins are due to our recommendation tools” and that most of the activity came from the platform’s “Groups You Should Join” and “Discover” algorithms: “Our recommendation systems grow the problem.”
FB literally recommends extremism. This is why I don’t use it much anymore.
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