Conspiracy theorist and far right activist Jacob Wohl violated the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Act when he and an associate tried to trick Black voters in New York out of voting, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Mr Wohl was accused over his role in an operation in which robocalls were sent to thousands of mainly non-white voters before the 2020 election falsely warning them that their personal information would be added to a public database and used by police departments and credit card companies.....

US District Judge Victor Marrero wrote in his ruling that it was clear Mr Wohl and his associate Jack Burkman wanted to “deny the right to vote specifically to Black voters.”
https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1633613598915174400

Today, as Politico reported, the president’s team broke new ground.

The White House joined in widespread condemnation of Fox News star Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, singling out the prime-time ratings king for his misleading portrayal of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. In comments shared first with POLITICO, the White House joined Republican Senate leaders and Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who a day earlier assailed Carlson’s broadcasts of selected assault footage as being “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions.”

“We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law — which cost police officers their lives,” Bates said.


The presidential spokesperson added, “We also agree with what Fox News’s own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: that Tucker Carlson is not credible.”

At face value, this might not seem especially provocative. A Democratic White House taking rhetorical shots at outlet aligned with Republican politics is probably in line with many observers’ expectations.

But these developments aren’t normal at all: The Biden White House does not generally engage in these fights, and Democratic leaders on the Hill do not routinely slam outlets or specific television personalities.

As Fox News deals with cascading controversies, the Democratic Party’s entire approach to the network is changing quickly — on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Five pregnant women and two doctors filed suit in Texas this week claiming that the state’s six-week abortion ban violates the state constitution’s due process and equal protection guarantees. The complaint asks that, at a minimum, the court declare a woman can obtain an abortion when a physician in good faith finds the patient suffers a condition of complication that “poses a risk of infection, bleeding, or otherwise makes continuing a pregnancy unsafe for the pregnant person; a physical medical condition that is exacerbated by pregnancy” that can’t be effectively treated or where “the fetus is unlikely to survive the pregnancy and sustain life after birth.”

Though Texas’s right-wing courts might well reject the suit based on its reading of the Texas constitution, the bracing and enlightening facts set out in the complaint should be mandatory reading for lawmakers who want to strip women of essential health care. Unlike most suits that are brought by advocacy groups, this action has real, live plaintiffs with heart-wrenching personal stories:

Amanda was forced to wait until she was septic to receive abortion care, causing one of her fallopian tubes to become permanently closed. When Lauren M. learned one of her twins was not viable, she was forced to travel out of state for the abortion she needed to save her and her other baby’s life, who is due in several weeks. Lauren H. received a devastating fetal diagnosis two weeks after Roe was overturned, and in the chaos that followed, she was forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. Pregnant again now, Lauren H. fears that Texas is not safe for her or her family. Anna was forced to fly across multiple states after her water broke, risking that she would go into labor or septic shock on the journey. Ashley had to travel out of state to for an abortion to save the life of one of her twins, and afterward, fearful of documenting Ashley’s abortion, her Texas physician instead described her condition as “vanishing twin syndrome.”

Lest anyone think these are oddball cases, the complaint reminds us that such cases are occurring routinely around the country in states that have banned or severely limited abortion access. The complaint points out that in case after case, the story is essentially the same: Necessary health care is denied; doctors are prevented from treating patients according to long-standing standards of care; and “pervasive fear and uncertainty throughout the medical community regarding the scope of the life and health exceptions have put patients’ lives and physicians’ liberty at grave risk.”,,,,,

Vice President Harris reacted to the suit in a written statement: “The lawsuit includes devastating, first-hand accounts of women’s lives almost lost after they were denied the health care they needed, because of extreme efforts by Republican officials to control women’s bodies.” She added, “Many extremist ‘so-called’ leaders espouse ‘freedom for all,’ while directly attacking the freedom to make one’s own health care decisions.”

Her assessment is spot on — and a reminder that abortion bans are not “pro-life” but barbaric and dangerous.

The debate over masks’ effectiveness in fighting the spread of the coronavirus intensified recently when a respected scientific nonprofit said its review of studies assessing measures to impede the spread of viral illnesses found it was “uncertain whether wearing masks or N95/P2 respirators helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses.”

Now the organization, Cochrane, says that the way it summarized the review was unclear and imprecise, and that the way some people interpreted it was wrong.

“Many commentators have claimed that a recently updated Cochrane review shows that ‘masks don’t work,’ which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation,” Karla Soares-Weiser, the editor in chief of the Cochrane Library, said in a statement.

“The review examined whether interventions to promote mask wearing help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses,” Soares-Weiser said, adding, “Given the limitations in the primary evidence, the review is not able to address the question of whether mask wearing itself reduces people’s risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses.”......

“Mask mandates, social distancing, the other shutdowns we had in terms of even restaurants and things like that — if places like New York City didn’t do that, the number of deaths would have been much higher,” he told me. “I’m very confident of that statement.”

So the evidence is relatively straightforward: Consistently wearing a mask, preferably a high-quality, well-fitting one, provides protection against the coronavirus.

It is hard to believe they could say this without questioning themselves, but this actually happened. Florida's Stop WOKE Act that DeSantis brought to life made it it illegal for anyone who takes state money, including teachers and most college professors, to espouse that unquestionably accurate belief.

“DeSantis' lawyers were forced by the court to define "woke." The lead lawyer described it as "The belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them." https://t.co/O5HGJuJIay”
https://twitter.com/elfsternberg/status/1599223334642012160
https://twitter.com/DWUhlfelderLaw/status/1599564020784062464

Republican presidential hopefuls are vowing to wage a war on "woke," but a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds a majority of Americans are inclined to see the word as a positive attribute, not a negative one.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed say the term means "to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices." That includes not only three-fourths of Democrats but also more than a third of Republicans.

Overall, 39% say instead that the word reflects what has become the GOP political definition, "to be overly politically correct and police others' words." That's the view of 56% of Republicans.

The findings raise questions about whether Republican campaign promises to ban policies at schools and workplaces they denounce as "woke" could boost a contender in the party's primaries but put them at odds with broader public opinion in the general election.

Independents, by 51%-45%, say "woke" means being aware of social injustice, not being overly politically correct.

“Most Americans understand that to be woke is to be tuned in to injustices around us,” said Cliff Young of Ipsos. "But for a key segment of Republicans who make up the Trump-DeSantis base, 'woke' is a clear trigger for the worst of the politically correct, emerging multicultural majority."

There’s an inextricable vanity to politics. People who seek elected office are definitionally asking to be judged favorably by voters. In theory, those judgments derive from the candidates’ positions and value. In practice, though, they are also judged on other metrics, like appearance.

Like height.

This very old idea in politics has gotten a fresh coat of paint in recent weeks as new attention has been paid to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) everything-but-formally-announced 2024 presidential aspirations. Reports that former president Donald Trump, one of a handful of announced candidates, is mulling the possible nickname “Tiny D” for the governor — Trump’s never been known for his subtlety — overlaps with new scrutiny of DeSantis’s predilection for heeled shoes. Perhaps, the theory goes, DeSantis is boosting his height in order to boost his 2024 chances.....

It seems clear, then, that DeSantis is probably about 6 feet tall — not 5?9?, as some critics have charged, and several inches shorter than Trump (whose medical report had him at 6?3?, in line with ChatGPT). When the two appeared at a rally together in 2019, it was clear that DeSantis was slightly shorter — perhaps in part because of his heel.