“My odyssey simply is: I’ve been a registered Republican for in excess of thirty years and I think the Party’s been hijacked by the policies of George Bush! I think a president should be smarter than I am.
“This is my first demonstration. I felt strongly enough to come. What I hope will happen is that the Democrats and Republicans with a mindset similar to mine get people to change their minds about the direction this country is taking. Remember, Clinton was impeached for a lot less. I saw a sign that said, ‘Clinton lied, no one died,’ and that just about sums it up.
— Cathy Hickling, a financial consultant from Maryland, who carried a sign that read, “Republicans for impeachment,” at the antiwar rally in Washington, D.C., Sept. 24, 2005
Soon as the deal was done, the GOPers started to bitch,
Though they closed no loopholes nor upped taxes on the rich.
Sure, right-wingers ain’t happy
About getting an ass-whupping from Pappy,
To which we say, “Shut up and eat your turd sandwich.”
“This year is starting to feel a lot like 2016, a primary field that contains Trump and all the other not-Trump candidates. The only difference between this contest and 2016 is that other candidates then ran (ostensibly, at least) as their own selves and not just lesser versions of the OG.”
A Utah parent filed a challenge to have the Bible removed from public school libraries, citing passages describing sex and violence. The committee appointed to review the complaint said the Bible may remain in high school libraries, but it will be removed from elementary and middle schools for containing “vulgarity or violence.”
“I’m going to leave it up to Kevin McCarthy to see if he wants to help defeat Putin,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Punchbowl News. “I mean, he’s been pretty good… But is the Republican Party going to be the party that bails out [Russian President Vladimir] Putin? I hope not.”
Southern Poverty Law Center: “In 2022, SPLC documented 1,225 hate and antigovernment extremist groups across the United States. Extremist ideas that mobilize these groups now operate more openly in the political mainstream. But the ascent of the hard right is not inevitable. We can push back against this rising authoritarianism and turn the tide.”
A new Yahoo News-YouGov poll found that 62% of Americans believe that Donald Trump should not be allowed to serve as president again if he is convicted of a “serious” crime. A slightly smaller majority — 52% — said they believe that Trump has committed a serious crime.
Gallup: “Seventy-one percent of Americans think same-sex marriage should be legal, matching the high Gallup recorded in 2022. Public support for legally recognizing gay marriages has been consistently above 50% since the early 2010s.”
Wall Street Journal: “The number of homeless people in California grew about 50% between 2014 and 2022. The state, which accounts for 12% of the U.S. population, has about half of the nation’s unsheltered homeless, an estimated 115,000 people, according to federal and state data last year. It also has among the highest average rent and median home prices in the U.S.”
CNBC: Nonfarm payrolls in May increased by 339,000, better than the 190,000 Dow Jones estimated.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in May against the estimate for 3.5%. May’s jobless rate was the highest since October 2022. Professional and business services led job creation followed by government and health care.