Alaskans Reject Sarah Palin — Again

Fresh on the heels of August’s loss in Alaska’s special congressional election, MAGA proto-Trump Sarah Palin — former Miss Wasilla, ex-sportscaster, once part-time Temp-Governor of Alaska, losing GOP Vice Presidential candidate, cancelled reality TV star, Arizona homeowner, Masked Singer, and failed Fox News commentator — also lost November’s election to pro-fish Democrat Mary Peltola. Previously, Ms. Peltola was an Orutsararmuit Native Council Tribal Court Judge and 5-term Alaska state legislator before serving the remainder of deceased US Congressman Don Young’s term, then winning re-election to a full two-year term.  A Yup’ik woman from the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, she is the first Native Alaskan to serve in the U.S. Congress. Ms. Palin, on the other hand, had been endorsed by Donald Trump.

These days, Sarah Palin seems a quaint relic of the Republican party she helped destroy.

More:

“Next act for Palin unclear after Alaska House losses,” Becky Bohrer, Associated Press

“Sarah Palin Loses as the Party She Helped Transform Moves Past Her,” Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times

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Sarah Palin’s Libel Lawsuit Thrown Out of Court

Sarah Palin, former Miss Wasilla and once part-time Temp-Governor of Alaska, had her libel suit against the New York Times thrown of of court. In an editorial, the Times erroneously linked Ms. Palin’s rhetoric to specific incidents of political gun violence, but quickly issued a correction. The judge found that the plaintiff’s case did not rise to the level of harm established as libel by the Supreme Court. In an unusual move, the judge made his ruling while the jury was deliberating, and the jury, independently, reached the same conclusion.

Sarah Palin, the proto-Trump, will probably appeal.

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GOP State Politicos Push Quack COVID Cures

Republican state lawmakers in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia have proposed legislation that allows quack doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat Covid-19 which, despite pronouncements on Fox News and right-wing podcasts, they do not do. North Dakota and Tennessee have already passed such laws, even though:

” … those treatments have not proven effective at preventing or treating Covid and infectious disease experts see the bills as examples of right-wing lawmakers politicizing medicine – a trend that is increasing as the pandemic wears on in America in to its third year amid an increasingly fraught political atmosphere.

And so it goes with the latest suspect Covid-19 treatment that has become about more than just a drug, but rather about whether to trust established public health organizations or doctors who stray from their guidelines, and podcast and cable news hosts.”

— “Concern as Republicans push to make dubious Covid cure prescriptions easier,” Eric Berger, The Guardian

More:

“Republicans Are Changing State Medical Board Rules So It’s Easier For Doctors To Prescribe Hydroxychloroquine And Ivermectin,” Kadia Goba, BuzzFeed News

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Sarah Palin Rants for Republicans in Georgia, Denies Trump Lost

Sarah Palin, former Miss Wasilla and Alaska TV sportscaster, once part-time Temp-Governor of Alaska, failed reality TV star and Fox News commentator, and John McCain’s biggest mistake, is now campaigning in Georgia alongside QAnon-embracing Congress-creature-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s in the Peach State in support of corrupt conservative GOP Senate candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, now in close races ahead of  the January 5th runoff election. Ms. Palin echoed false claims that Trump didn’t lose the presdential election, and spoke Friday as part of the “Save America Tour,” funded by the right-wing  Club for Malignant Growth. which also booked conservative ciruit celebs Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Jim Jordan, and Lee Greenwood.

More:

“Sarah Palin hits campaign trail in Georgia, denying Trump lost alongside QAnon-supporting Republican,” Stuti Mishra, The Independent

“Palin campaigns in Georgia for Loeffler, Perdue,” Celine Castronuovo, The Hill

“Sarah Palin Returns to the Movement She Started in Georgia Runoff Campaign,” Sam Brodey, Daily Beast

Related:

“’A Serial Liar’: How Sarah Palin Ushered in the ‘Post-Truth’ Political Era in Which Trump Has Thrived,” Patrice Taddonio, Frontline

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Trump Economic Recovery Panel: Libertarian Clown Posse

President Trump announced the members of his Coronavirus economic recovery panel yesterday. He calls it the Great American Economic Revival and, true to its name, it’s got an amen corner of true believers. Unfortunately for a panel on government economic interventions, they’re fundamentalist Libertarians, believers in a savage free market “red in tooth and claw,” and opposed to any government intervention in American life. The market Malthusian “though leaders” on this committee are from the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Conservative Partnership Institute. Even the name “Great American Economic Revival” was provided by a Right-Wing media group.

Ginni Thomas, Spy Hunter!

Rightwing lobbyist, Supreme spouse, and Tea Party cultist Ginni Thomas is making a list, checking it twice, and ridding the Trump White House of spies, snakes and traitors, those professional civil servants more devoted to the Constitution than personal loyalty to Donald Trump. That sounds better to conspiracy nuts when they call the Civil Service the “Deep State.”

Since 2013 Ginni Thomas has been part of the ad hoc Groundswell group, a rightwing cabal opposed to GOP centrists as much as liberal Democrats. In January she and other Tea Party survivors met with President Trump in the White House with a belated Christmas gift, their Naughty/Nice List. The Goundswell goons called for the firing of qualified federal government professionals and the hiring of Trump toadies, hard right wingnuts, Fox News talking heads, and other incompetents in their stead.

After getting her fringe-group friends into high White House places, Ms. Thomas plans to defend the Trump-archy in the 2020 election through her own MAGA-supporting PAC.

More:

“Trump’s ‘Deep State’ hit list,” Jonathan Swan, Axios

“Among Those Pressing Trump to Weed Out Disloyalty: Clarence Thomas’s Wife,” Maggie Haberman, New York Times

“Clarence Thomas’ Wife Is Helping Trump Purge ‘Snakes’ From the White House — and Replace Them With Fox News Regulars,” Travis Gettys, The New Civil Rights Movement

“Ginni Thomas’ White House Meeting Was Just Another Grift,” Mark Joseph Stern, Salon

Updates:

“Trump acknowledges lists of disloyal government officials to oust,” Jacob Knutson, Axios

“Trump Claims Purging Officials Who Are ‘Disloyal’ To Him Is Good For America,” Cristina Cabrera, TalkingPointsMemo

“Baby-faced assassin: the 29-year old at the heart of Trump’s ‘deep state’ purge,” Tom McCarthy, The Guardian (also “A new senior leader at the White House personnel office: A college senior,” Daniel Lippman and Meridith McGraw, Politico).

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Trump Wants Herman Cain on the Federal Reserve Board

In what may be an attempt to make make a prior nominee look better in comparison, President Trump announced plans to nominate pizza czar Herman Cain of “9-9-9 Tax” and sexcapade fame to a vacant Federal Reserve Board seat.

Like the 6-times-bankrupt Mr. Trump, Mr. Cain was a brilliant businessman, and brought Godfather’s Pizza to profitability by closing 200 restaurants and firing thousands of employees. He entered politics in 1996 as an advisor to Bob Dole’s presidential campaign, then worked as a restaurant lobbyist before his unsuccessful, Islamophobic, Tea-Party attempt to gain the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

Since then, Herman Cain has remained active promoting money-making scams and conspiracy theories. You see why Donald Trump considers him perfect for the Federal Reserve Board. Other Republican leaders are not quite so sure.

More:

“Trump Wants Herman Cain on the Fed Because He’s an Unqualified Hack,” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

“McConnell declines to publicly endorse Herman Cain for Federal Reserve Board,” Colby Itkowitz and Seung Min Kim, Washington Post

“Herman Cain Admitted He Isn’t Sure He’ll Pass a Background Check,” Tim Murphy, Mother Jones

“Why Does Trump Want to Debase the Fed?” Paul Krugman, New York Times

“Herman Cain is a joke that the Fed can’t afford,” Matt O’Brien, Washington Post

Update:

“Four Senate Republicans signal opposition to Trump’s plan to put Herman Cain on Federal Reserve Board, all but sinking nomination,” Damian Paletta, Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim, Washington Post

Herman Cain Will Not Be Bringing Delicious Godfather’s Pizza To FOMC Meetings,” Jon Shazar, DealBreaker

“White House gives Herman Cain an out on Fed amid GOP opposition,” John T. Bennett, Roll Call

“Herman Cain: I Won’t Withdraw From Consideration for Fed Board,” Daily Beast

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Rocket Racer Named NASA Administrator

The U.S. Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Republican Congressman Jim Bridenstine (OK-1) as NASA Administrator. Mr. Bridestine, unlike the first 12 space agency leaders, is not a scientist or aerospace engineer, though he flew an E-2C Hawkeye turboprop in Latin America as part of the War on Drugs. Mr. Bridenstine’s more recent aerospace experience was as Executive Director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, where he managed to put the museum in the hole by using its resources to fund a Rocket Racing League exhibition at the Tulsa Air Show in 2010. One of the owners of the Rocket Racing League was Jim Bridenstine, a classic case of self-dealing.

Annual budget of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum: $1 million. Annual budget of NASA: $18.5 billion. Houston, we have a problem.

More:

“How Trump’s NASA Nominee Used a Nonprofit He Ran to Benefit Himself,” Nick Schwellenbach and Adam Zagorin, Daily Beast

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Bachmann Eyes Senate Run

Former Swiss citizen and ex-Congresscreature Michele Bachmann has her crazy eyes on the Wisconsin senate seat recently vacated by Al Franken. Mrs. Bachmann previously represented the 6th District of Minnesota, the Planet Mars, the Tea Party Caucus, and the voice of the Lord, and considered running for president in 2016. Her 2012 presidential bid triggered FEC and Congressional Ethics inquiries.

More:

“Michele Bachmann tells televangelist she might run for Al Franken’s Senate seat,” Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post

“Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann eyes Senate run for Al Franken’s seat,” Jessica Estepa, USA Today

Related:

“Return To Bachmann-ia: Here’s What Michele Bachmann Has Been Up To,” Matt Shuham, TPM DC

Update:

“Bachmann won’t run for Franken’s Senate seat because she did not hear a ‘call from God,'” Avery Anapol, The Hill

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Maine Gov’s Wife Takes Job From Woman Who Really Needs It

23,000 people in Maine are jobless and looking for work, but Governor Paul LePage’s wife wants a cute new car, so she is working as a waitress in scenic Boothbay Harbor during the lucrative summer tourist season. While Mrs. LePage is serving lobster nachos and double-wrapped bacon scallops, Governor LePage is trying to eliminate the food stamp benefits of his poorest constituents.

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