Crooked Media - What A Day: Ronny on the spot

 -Candace Owens, mistaking J.K. Rowling for George Orwell

While Republicans in Congress continue to support Donald Trump and cover up his 2019 attempt to extort Volodymyr Zelensky, the Democratic speaker of the House took a secret trip to war-torn Ukraine to demonstrate solidarity with Zelensky and underscore how badly Russia has failed in its effort to take over his country.

• Nancy Pelosi arrived in Kyiv this weekend, along with Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jason Crow (D-CO), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), and Jim McGovern (D-MA), where among other things Zelensky’s team shot this very cool video of him greeting the lawmakers outdoors, in the bright light of day, nary a 20-foot-long table in sight. As the second in the line of succession to the presidency, Pelosi becomes the highest-ranking U.S. official to travel into Ukraine since Russia invaded. 
   
• The purpose of the meeting was also to firm up U.S. promises to provide Ukraine with more U.S. military assistance. “Our delegation proudly delivered the message that additional American support is on the way, as we work to transform President Biden’s strong funding request into a legislative package,” Pelosi said in a statement after the meeting. 
   
• Pelosi’s visit fell against a backdrop not just of Ukraine having largely pacified Kyiv, but of its forces having grown more confident in their own capabilities. Russia has suffered a number of serious setbacks within its own territory recently, most of which Ukraine has declined to disclaim. Within its borders, Ukraine has also targeted, wounded, and killed several senior Russian officers, including during an overnight April 30-May 1 bombardment of Russia’s military headquarters.

Needless to say Vladimir Putin et al are super P.O.’d about all this. 

• The most repulsive of their responses came from Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who compared Zelensky to Hitler by dint of their shared Naziism and Jewishness. “So what if Zelensky is Jewish?” he said. “The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people said that the most ardent antisemites are usually Jews." Apropos of absolutely nothing, here’s a picture of Trump and Lavrov yukking it up in the Oval Office at Trump’s invitation almost exactly five years ago. 
   
• Lavrov also denied the plain truth that Putin has been openly contemplating the use of nuclear weapons, advancing the trollish lie that western countries, not Russia, are “starting the conversation about this.” This erratic behavior may have something to do with the U.K.’s assessment that a quarter of Russia’s battalion tactical groups have been “rendered combat ineffective” including elite units, which will take “years for Russia to reconstitute.”

If Republicans make you want to pull your hair out—you’re not alone! Take some time to de-stress this mental health awareness month with episodes that are good for your peace of mind. On America Dissected, Abdul talks about youth mental health and climate change with Varshini Prakash from the Sunrise Movement, on Offline Dr. Anna Lembke discusses dopamine and finding peace, and this week on Stuck with Damon Young tune in for a conversation with author Kiese Laymon and Dr. Joy Harden-Bradford on why we all need therapy. You can listen to these episodes and more wherever you get your podcasts!

With just over one-month until public hearings begin, the House January 6 committee has requested testimony and evidence from three more elected Republicans: Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), and Mo Brooks (R-AL). All three men are known to have had different kinds of involvement in the insurrection. Biggs was involved in January 6 planning, and, according to the committee, may have sought a pardon for himself after January 6. Jackson has been asked to explain why militia members accused of seditious conspiracy tried to coordinate a security detail for Jackson, and why they thought he had “critical data” to share. Brooks (whom Donald Trump recently turned on) has spoken publicly about the things Trump tried to get him to do to overturn the election. Jackson has already rejected the invitation, which raises the question of what steps, if any, the committee might take to compel testimony, or punish contemptuous witnesses who happen to be elected members of Congress. Meanwhile a federal judge—a Trump appointee, no less—has thrown out and eviscerated a Republican National Committee lawsuit seeking to void the committee’s subpoena for data about the money the committee raised off the Big Lie.

• A new Lancet study shows Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine confers strong protection against Omicron variant in boosted individuals, but that this protection wanes rapidly after three months. 
   
• In his new book Haha: Boy Is My Face Red! Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper will confirm reports that Trump asked his top security advisers to order troops to shoot protesters gathered near the White House after the killing of George Floyd.
   
• Elon Musk seems to have some regrets about how much of his personal wealth he promised to cough up to buy Twitter.
   
• Amazon will reimburse employees who have to travel to obtain abortions, it will no longer provide paid time off for employees who contract COVID-19, and a union drive at a New York Amazon warehouse has failed. This has been your semi-regular Amazon news update.
   
• Voters seeking to disqualify Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from federal office for participating in the insurrection have asked the court hearing their case to admit new evidence, alleging she lied under oath about proposing Donald Trump invoke martial law (because she totally lied). 
   
• A member of Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche party has resigned her seat in parliament after getting caught spending exorbitant sums of taxpayer money on beach vacations and lingerie.
   
• Not to be outdone, a member of Boris Johnson’s Conservative party has resigned his seat in parliament after getting caught watching porn on his cell phone in the House of Commons chamber.
   
• Canadian intelligence hardcore dunked on U.S. security services for botching the January 6 insurrection.
   
• Donald Trump claimed at a rally this weekend to have endorsed “JD Mandel” in the Ohio GOP Senate primary, a mashup up of JD Vance (whom he did endorse) and Josh Mandel (whom he did not) and now the website jdmandel.com redirects to Democrat Tim Ryan’s campaign page. 
   
• When Roe v. Wade is good and wrecked (if not overturned outright) Republicans will organize around efforts to ban abortion nationally. 
   
• Land temperatures in India reached 143.6 degrees Fahrenheit in India this weekend. 

For all the political capital Republicans have thrown into their culture war against schools and teachers, with bigoted smears about “grooming” and race pedagogy, it turns out most parents like their children’s schools and their teachers, and don’t believe Republican propaganda matches their real world experiences. A new survey from NPR and Ipsos found that less than percent of parents say their children learned about gender and sexuality, race and racism, or U.S. history in a manner that conflicts with their household values. The finding is a cause for both hope and concern: The hope is that Republican legislative assault on teachers and the texts they use can backfire, if Democrats choose to go on the offensive against the GOP censorship juggernaut; the concern is that Republicans seem to have been able to make huge ideological strides in this culture war despite little organic frustration with teachers, perhaps by convincing parents who like their children’s schools and teachers that imaginary phenomena like mass “grooming” in schools is a big problem elsewhere.

Terrified of climate change? Want to be a solar baron? Exhausted by COVID variant 65? Taken a few too many Z-Packs?

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Williams has convened a special grand jury to investigate Donald Trump’s efforts to falsify and overturn the election in Georgia after the 2020 election. 

Germany may be prepared to back an immediate E.U. ban on Russian oil.

You can watch a helicopter try to catch a rocket booster falling back to Earth from space.  

Someone made a fake Dan Scavino account on Donald Trump’s failing Truth Social platform and used it to scam MAGA people.