That's from Democracy Now! and this is from the show's transcript:

AMY GOODMAN: Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville is coming under fire after expressing support for white nationalists in the U.S. military. Tuberville made the comments last week while talking to WBHM, an NPR affiliate in Alabama.

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE: We are losing in the military so fast our readiness in terms of recruitment. And why? I’ll tell you why: because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying, “We need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t — don’t believe in our agenda, as the Joe Biden agenda.” They’re destroying it.

RICHARD BANKS: You mentioned the Biden administration trying to prevent white nationalists from being in the military. Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE: Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.

AMY GOODMAN: “I call them Americans.” In an attempt to walk back his comments, Senator Tuberville told a reporter at NBC, quote, “I look at a white nationalist as a Trump Republican.” Listen carefully.

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE: I look at a white nationalist as a — as a Trump Republican. That’s what we’re called all the time, a MAGA person. That’s what I’m just — that” —

JULIE TSIRKIN: Do you agree with that assumption?

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE: Well, I agree that we should not be characterizing Trump supporters as white nationalists.

AMY GOODMAN: Senator Chuck Schumer blasted Tuberville’s remarks, describing them as “utterly revolting.” The controversy comes as President Biden told graduates at Howard University Saturday white supremacy is a poison and the, quote, “most dangerous terrorist threat in the country.”

Meanwhile, on Sunday, members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., carrying shields and battle drums.

Senator Tommy Tuberville was already facing criticism for blocking nearly 200 military promotions to protest a Pentagon policy which covers paid leave for workers who have to travel out of state to get an abortion. Tuberville remains a major backer of Donald Trump. Last week, he decried the New York jury that unanimously found Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. Tuberville said the jury’s decision, quote, “makes me want to vote for him twice.”

We’re joined now by former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat who served in the Senate from 2018 to 2021. He lost to Tuberville in the 2020 election. Jones is also a former U.S. attorney, who successfully prosecuted two Ku Klux Klan members involved in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four girls between the ages of 11 and 14.

Senator Doug Jones, welcome to Democracy Now! If you could first respond to your former opponent — Tuberville beat you for the Senate seat that you held — talking about, responding to the issue of the Pentagon Secretary Lloyd Austin trying to rout out white supremacists in the military?

DOUG JONES: Well, I think it’s absolutely outrageous, what he’s saying. It’s deplorable. You know, he talks about the fact that Democrats are attacking the military. No, Democrats are not attacking the military. We’re actually supporting the military. It is Senator Tuberville who is attacking the military and all of their policies, whether it is holding up nominations for promotions, which affects readiness and morale, or attacking the policies that the administration is trying to do to kind of weed out these white nationalists, these white supremacists. You know, you only have to look at what happened in Boston recently, where a young National Guardsman leaked classified information, and now we’re learning he is the very kind of person that the administration is trying to weed out of there. It makes no sense whatsoever, what Senator Tuberville says, and is purely a political ploy attacking the administration at every turn.

AMY GOODMAN: When asked about white nationalists, he said he calls them Americans. You have a long, illustrious civil rights history. You put two members of the Ku Klux Klan behind bars for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, the bombing happened. Can you talk about what white nationalism means and what he’s saying?

DOUG JONES: Sure. You know, look, they may be American citizens, but they’re dang sure not patriots. These are not people that support the government of the United States. They support themselves. They support only the white nationalists that they are. They don’t support a diverse society. They don’t support a diverse America. And if you look at what’s happening, just look at the Patriot Front guys who marched around the Capitol just recently, they are hell-bent on trying to make this a purely white country, and totally not recognizing what’s going on in this country and how supportive this country is of the diversity that we see. And that’s the real problem. They will resort to violence. They will resort to subversion of the United States, if possible, in order to get the kind of country they, in their mind, think is appropriate. And that is a real problem in the United States military. It’s a problem in law enforcement across this country. And we have to make sure that we do everything necessary to get those people out of the chain of command, out of the military, so that we can protect all Americans and protect our national security.

AMY GOODMAN: During a March 28th hearing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Senator Tuberville was quoted saying, quote, “War is hell. You know that better than anybody. Every recruit should know that. But in the last few years we’ve put them through a different kind of hell. In one of your first acts, Mr. Secretary, you put our military — every single member, active and reserve — through a mandatory training to root out 'extremists.'” Tuberville was clearly disparaging this. Your response, Senator Jones?

DOUG JONES: It’s just hard to respond to just stupid statements like that. I mean, that’s the only way that you can describe that kind of reaction to the United States military, to think that we should not be rooting out extremism — on either side, by the way. It doesn’t matter whether if it’s extremism on the right or extremism on the left. That is dangerous to the United States military, to morale, to the chain of command, to our national security. And, yes, war is hell. Everything is difficult in the military. That is exactly why you have to have a disciplined military, not people that are going to go off like this guy did and provide classified information to his buddies online. You’ve got to have that discipline. And you cannot have that discipline if you have extremes on either side.

That was on Tuesday's program. It was an important program but I wasn't in the mood for it yesterday having covered the topic already:

Useless Idiots Katie Halper and Briahna Joy Gray

Tommy Tuberville needs to be out of the Senate

Thank you to Democracy Now! for covering it and they did so strongly. It's a shame others couldn't.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Wednesday, May 17, 2023. Another do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrite is exposed for the liar that they really are.

Damn you, Paul Rudnick! :D I thought I was done dictating this snapshot and then I said, "Wait, Paul's probably got something funny about this on Twitter." He does. And he also makes a Dogpatch reference. So I have to redo my sentence that originally opened the snapshot and we'll just instead open with his Tweets. So here's Paul.

Those two crazy kids were a match made in a blazing hell with Jesse Helms smiling over them. In spite of -- or because of -- that, Josh Fiallo and Roger Sollenberger (DAILY BEAST) report, Lauren Boebert served her registered sex offender husband with divorce papers on Tuesday. He refused the papers but she confirmed to the press that she had filed for divorce.

He was taken by surprise which makes clear that hate merchant and alleged Christian Lauren decided this was something she could do without God. She didn't do counseling, she didn't discuss the decision with her husband.

It's really interesting to watch the Christian illiterates like Lauren stand in judgment of others when, point of fact, they do whatever they want and then utter some mealy mouthed words if anyone notices.

By Lauren's beliefs, she will now be an adulteress as a result of this divorce -- which per the Book of Matthew -- must be due to her "sexual immorality."

I was thinking about this yesterday. The Bible is very clear that sex outside of marriage is wrong. But when Lauren's son gets an underage girl pregnant, oh, well Lauren doesn't care what the Bible says. However when it comes to a same-sex couple having sex, she's all about citing the Bible.

In September, Daniel Villareal (LGBTQ NATION) reported:

Anti-LGBTQ Christian nationalist Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) recently gave a speech telling Christians to “rise up” and put “God back at the center of our country.” She also said that LGBTQ people have created a national “identity crisis” for children and families by “spitting in God’s face” and perverting his creation.

Boebert made her comments last weekend at the three-day conference hosted by Truth and Liberty Coalition, a Christian nationalist organization that believes the U.S. must be a rigidly Christian nation. The organization was founded by far-right preacher Andrew Wommack, and the event was hosted at Wommack’s Charis Bible College in Woodland Park, Colorado.

In August, Lily Wakefield (PINK NEWS) reported:

Republican Colorado representative Lauren Boebert has suggested that children in public schools should be forced to undergo “biblical citizenship training”.

Boebert’s chilling comments were made on an episode of FlashPoint, a Christian news show which airs on the Victory Channel, owned by the anti-LGBTQ+ televangelist Kenneth Copeland.

The Colorado Republican and gun rights activist, who has previously said that LGBTQ+ people should be banned from coming out before the age of 21, discussed the upcoming midterm elections and said Republicans must prove that they will “get America rolling again”.

She added: “Maybe we need to have some sort of legislation that requires… biblical citizenship training in our schools. And that’s how we get things turned around.”

It's nonsense. It's two different standards. She's a hypocrite and so is anyone who goes along with her.

Ava and I called out the flaming pearl clutcher in that awful NETFLIX documentary CALL ME KATE -- he had a heart attack that anyone might wonder if Katharine Hepburn was a lesbian (she was) but he was fine talking about her alleged affairs with men -- including with Spencer Tracy who was married.

I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the damn hypocrisy where you feign outrage that Hepburn might be a lesbian (she was) while you dish about her (brief) affair with the married Spencer Tracy and try to present that as 'normal' and 'love.' No, he was a raging drunk who hit her repeatedly. Don't pimp the 'feminist' Kate lie while glorifying her relationship with Spencer -- which lasted weeks only according to Garson Kanin. I'm sick of it. And everyone knows about Hepburn and everyone knew about her.

And everyone knew Lauren Boebert was demanding that others live by this or that in the Bible while ignoring the very book she claimed to follow. Her own kind should pick up rocks and stone her -- that's in the Bible -- but the rest of us should just point a finger and laugh anytime we see her in public.

"Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women" -- isn't that in the Book of John? (It is.)

Some reactions on Twitter.

Meanwhile Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

Citing a "crisis of legitimacy" they say is plaguing the U.S. Supreme Court, a group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday reintroduced legislation aimed at thwarting Republican attacks on democracy by expanding the nation's top court from nine to 13 justices.

Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) reintroduced the Judiciary Act outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., where they held a press conference.

"The nation's highest court today faces a crisis of legitimacy that began when Senate Republicans first abandoned norms and precedent to block the confirmation of then-President [Barack] Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, only to later ram through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett a mere 10 days before Election Day 2020, and while millions of Americans were already casting ballots," the lawmakers said in a statement.

"The stolen, far-right Supreme Court majority has since ruled to destroy 50 years of settled precedent by rolling back the fundamental right to abortion care in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and has become the subject of scandal, including new and resurfaced reports of Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose gifts provided to him by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow and his spouse's more than $680,000 in unreported income from the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation," the statement noted.

Markey contended that "Republicans have hijacked the confirmation process and stolen the Supreme Court majority—all to appeal to far-right judicial activists who for years have wanted to wield the gavel to roll back fundamental rights."

"Each scandal uncovered, each norm broken, each precedent-shattering ruling delivered is a reminder that we must restore justice and balance to the rogue, radical Supreme Court," he argued. "It is time we expand the court."

Johnson said that "it's easy to take for granted that the number of justices on the Supreme Court must be nine. But it is not written in the Constitution and has changed seven times over the course of our nation's history."

Meanwhile, the Iraq War continues. The White House issued the following yesterday:

Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Stabilization of Iraq

On May 22, 2003, by Executive Order 13303, the President declared a national emergency pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq.

The obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303, as modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13290 of March 20, 2003, Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004, Executive Order 13438 of July 17, 2007, and Executive Order 13668 of May 27, 2014, must continue in effect beyond May 22, 2023. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq declared in Executive Order 13303.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 16, 2023.

The following sites updated: