Political Heat

 Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 presidential run on Wednesday, and he's going to do it, on Twitter, with Elon Musk by his side, apparently... via NBC News : Musk and DeSantis will host an event on Twitter Spaces, the site’s platform for audio chats, on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET. It will be moderated by David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur who is a Musk confidant and DeSantis supporter.  That same evening, the campaign will release a launch video, and DeSantis will begin visiting several early states after Memorial Day.  There's no word yet, really, on whether this will be an official "endorsement" from Musk, but the billionaire has said in the past he would back DeSantis if he announced a run for president . Given Musk's childish behavior on the platform and his hypocritical actions in managing it, it's probably a good bet to guess that the platform will be used many times by the Twitter owner to further DeSantis's presidential aspirations in the future, too...

It was ridiculous (and blatantly wrong) for Trump to suggest, while he was president, that it was "treasonous" for anyone to investigate or criticize him. It's even more ridiculous, now that he's a private citizen, for him to be making the same claims. Treason, of course, is a federal crime, for which the penalty can be death . So Trump is essentially saying Smith (and any other investigator looking into his illicit actions) should be charged with a crime for doing so and possibly be killed over it, too.  Via Raw Story : In a late-night posting on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith for investigating him on multiple fronts and bizarrely claimed that he and his family and friends are on a "treasonous quest." Said Trump on his fledgling social media experiment gone wrong Truth Social : TRUMP Hating Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, whose family and friends are Big Time Haters also, will be working overtime on this tre...

Donald Trump's plans for his next presidency (if he's elected) is to go after political opponents like a paranoid madman, and pursue conspiracy theories with reckless abandon, harming millions of Americans in the process. You know, like how he behaved in his first term in office. From Axios : [Trump] wants to give the president the authority to hire and fire federal workers at will — not a new idea, but now part of a broad effort to "clean out" investigators and officials he sees as disloyal or who have questioned his conduct. ... Trump wants to fire "radical left" officials who accredit universities, reward schools that abolish tenure for teachers, eliminate many college administrators and remove diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. ... He's vowing to get rid of "Marxist prosecutors " and create an auditing system to monitor U.S. intelligence agencies “to ensure they are not spying on our citizens." And no Trump policy statement wou...

Fulton County AG Fani Willis -- who is overseeing the investigation into former President Donald Trump's attempts to improperly overturn the Georgia election results in the 2020 presidential race -- may have indicated when she will issue charges against him and his allies who sought to do the same. From The New York Times : The Georgia prosecutor leading an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his allies has taken the unusual step of announcing remote work days for most of her staff during the first three weeks of August, asking judges in a downtown Atlanta courthouse not to schedule trials for part of that time as she prepares to bring charges in the inquiry. The moves suggest that [Willis] is expecting a grand jury to unseal indictments during that time period. And from The Guardian : Willis made no explicit mention of Trump during the meeting, but the specific timing is understood to reflect the expected window for indictments after previous indications sugges...

 Let's talk about Marjorie Taylor Greene's planned articles of impeachment for Joe Biden. Greene announced her intention to file articles of impeachment against Biden on Thursday, saying her reason for doing so -- which, will go nowhere, given that the slim GOP majority in the House, let alone the Dem majority in the Senate, won't advance it -- is that he's been bad at securing the border, and hence, has failed to live up to the oath of his office . A few things here... A) The oath the president takes, stipulated by the Constitution , is as follows: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. To prove that Biden violated that pledge requires Greene to provide evidence that he didn't protect the U.S. on purpose. Even if he failed to protect the border, that's not really grounds for impeachment, es...

Jim Jordan doesn't want to abide by the committee rules of the very committee he oversees. I'd say this is shocking behavior, but because it's Jim Jordan, it's not really shocking at all. From The Daily Beast : Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) repeatedly denied Democrats’ requests to receive the testimony of one of the GOP’s self-described “whistleblowers” during Thursday’s House hearing on the “weaponization” of the FBI... ... Jordan told Democrats that “you’re not getting the testimony” of FBI staff operations specialist Marcus Allen, claiming the minority party isn’t entitled to all evidence collected from whistleblowers. Democrats familiar with the rules of the committee -- as well as the legal definition of "whistleblower" -- put Jordan in his place.Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) “These are not whistleblowers,” Ranking Member Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) exclaimed. “The law has not determined they are whistleblowers. His attorney is just asserting that.” Democrats...

State Rep. Scott Allen (R) wants to give parents the ability to sue school districts for books they believe are "obscene." The move to do so would mirror what Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans have done in Florida, inevitably leading to book bans and more problems here that are regularly seen in the Sunshine State. Allen proposes two bills in a recent press release he published. From Business Insider : The first bill recommends that the state strip school employees and teachers of their protections against prosecution for "displaying obscene material," the release says. The other bill would prohibit the use of public funds to purchase "obscene material." Allen pretends his proposal is innocuous. "When you look at the definition of obscene material in state statute, there is no reason for that type of material to be in our schools," he said. Obscenity is indeed defined by state law as material that "the average person, applying contemporary ...

 A 15-year-old student in Springfield, Missouri, was suspended for filming her teacher using the n-word, repeatedly, in class. I kid you not. From The Washington Post : Mary Walton thought her teacher repeatedly saying a racist slur in class last week was wrong, so the 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School in Springfield, Mo., pulled out her phone and started filming, the student’s lawyer said. ... “Put your phone away,” he told her, according to video reviewed by The Washington Post. “No,” Mary said. “Then go to the office,” he responded. Days later, she was suspended for making the 55-second video, according to her lawyer. Walton's lawyer makes a compelling case for why the action taken by the school was wrong  —  that it essentially tells kids to sit back and do nothing when something so egregiously wrong happens. Via Essence : [Walton's lawyer Natalie] Hull stated, “This kid did what we want people to do — see something, say something,” continuing, “Now we’re ...

Nobody is liking any of these state bans/severe restrictions on abortion, except for far-right zealots and ideologues who view the issue in black-and-white terms, where only their opinions matter (and the rights of others don't). From NARAL Pro Choice America , which conducted a poll on abortion views in conjuction with Change Research: Seventy-three percent of voters nationwide, including a majority of 2020 Trump voters, 3 in 4 independents, and 55% of white rural men believe things have gone too far [when it comes to post-Roe abortion restrictions]. These findings come as 19 states have eliminated or restricted access because of abortion bans, and anti-choice extremists continue to push for a national ban. Fifty-one percent of people who voted for Donald Trump even say that abortion bans happening now are too much. Overall, 58 percent of respondents from all political backgrounds agree that these bans are dangerous. ( And they're right, too .)

In true Elon Musk fashion, the Tesla CEO and Twitter owner downplayed the white supremacy beliefs that the Allen, Texas, mass shooter had. Said Musk ( per reporting from Rolling Stone ): “I think it was incorrectly ascribed to be a white supremacist action,” Musk said, claiming that Bellingcat’s discovery of a social media profile outlining his beliefs was not credible. “Have you heard what Bellingcat does? Psyops.” Musk added.  Of course, the shooter's far-right and extremist beliefs have been well documented. The guy even has "SS" lightning bolt and swastika tattoos, for crying out loud. More from Rolling Stone : Documents from the FBI and other officials have unveiled the shooter posted neo-Nazi content. Police have confirmed that photos of the shooters swastika and “SS” tattoos circulating on social media were genuine, and said the investigation has established that he harbored “neo-Nazi ideation.” And from The Verge , which points out that this isn't the first ti...

Timothy Parlatore, an attorney for Donald Trump who represented him in the ongoing Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, has left the former president's legal team. From CNN : Parlatore’s departure became official Tuesday, though it had been rumored for several weeks among the former president’s inner circle. The high-profile departure comes as special counsel Jack Smith appears to be in the final stretch of investigations into the possible mishandling of classified documents and efforts to obstruct the 2020 election. ... Parlatore’s exit is notable given he was the attorney who organized searches for additional classified documents last year at Trump Tower, Trump’s properties in Bedminster, Mar-a-Lago, an office in Palm Beach and a Florida storage unit. And from CBS : Parlatore was also among the lawyers who sent a letter to Congress asking it to tell the Justice department to "stand down" on the documents probe. In the letter, Trump's legal team suggested the former...

We're still a year and a half away from the next presidential election, but we already know the two most likely people to become the Democratic and Republican parties' nominees — current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, respectively. Polling on the race is already showing it will likely be a close one. As of May 7, the RealClearPolitics average of polls had Trump actually slightly ahead of Biden , though his lead was within the margin of error for the polls taken. Today, however, is different — a new Reuters /Ipsos poll has Biden leading Trump , by around the same margin he won the 2020 presidential election. From Reuters : Among registered voters, Biden led Trump, his predecessor as president, by six percentage points in a hypothetical match-up, 44% to 38% What's changed? Aside from some interviews he's done with far-right networks, Trump really hasn't been making appearances in mainstream media over the past year. He's been silent on Twit...

A lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, filed by a former staffer of his named Noelle Dunphy, alleges he engaged in "unlawful abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft, and other misconduct." Among the claims in her suit, Dunphy alleges that Giuliani demanded she dress in certain clothes (or no clothes at all) while she worked. She apparently has evidence for some of the items she claims, as she saved graphic texts Giuliani sent to her while she was working for him . The lawsuit makes other claims, too, that involve Donald Trump. Per The Independent : [Dunphy claims] that Mr Giuliani asked her “if she knew anyone in need of a pardon” because he was “selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split”. Yikes.  If true, that's a huge abuse of power, especially by Trump, who was president at the time. Pardon power is generally unregulated, but if the president of the United States (no matter who they are) tries to use pardons in a...

Howdy, everyone. Yep, I'm still around.  I've been toying with some ideas in my head about what to do with this site. I quit blogging here to write full-time at Truthout.org as a news writer for that organization. I plan to continue doing that. (I love Truthout, and I think you would, too. Go to the site , read some articles, and please consider giving them a donation .)  I also want to do something different here. So at Political Heat, I'm going to write shorter posts, just a few lines in length, to simply provide links to stories that I think are worth reading. I may interject my opinion here or there in these posts, too, and once in a while I'll do longer opinion pieces as well. This will keep Political Heat active, which I think is a good thing. I hope you do as well. Thanks for reading!