Twitter crashed repeatedly on Wednesday during a highly anticipated live audio chat between Elon Musk, Twitter's owner, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, hampering the politician's announcement he is running for the Republican presidential nomination. Since Musk took over the social media platform in October, he has laid off thousands of employees including many engineers who were responsible for fixing software bugs. "Failure to Launch", "Crashed" and #DeSaster were among the trending Twitter topics in the U.S. during the chat session. read more
The Headline? "Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.". Say what? Bottom line: Crow paid for private school for a relative Thomas said he was raising "as a son." "This is way outside the norm. This is way in excess of anything I've seen," said Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, referring to the cascade of gifts over the years. Painter said that when he was at the White House, an official who'd taken what Thomas had would have been fired: "This amount of undisclosed gifts? You'd want to get them out of the government." read more
The discovery of the text message contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Tucker Carlson's firing. read more
Carolyn Bryant was 21 years old in 1955, a former beauty queen with ivory skin, high cheekbones and piercing dark eyes. She lived a quiet life, raising two sons and working at her husband's Mississippi grocery, until a 14-year-old African American, Emmett Till, stopped in the store for bubble gum one August evening and was said to have wolf-whistled at her on the way out. Days later, on Aug. 28, 1955, Till was abducted, tortured and shot. read more
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his GOP allies have moved to shield the Republican leader from the state's notoriously robust public records laws as he prepares to launch a campaign for the White House. One bill advancing through the Republican-controlled state legislature would conceal information about DeSantis' travel and who he has met with at the governor's mansion. Another would allow state political committees " like the one where DeSantis has stashed $85 million for his future political ambitions " to report their fundraising activity less frequently. Separately, DeSantis in court cases has lately claimed "executive privilege" to block the release of records and to keep staff from testifying " a power typically reserved for presidents and which none of his predecessors had previously asserted is entrusted to the state's governor. If realized, it would give DeSantis tremendous new discretion to keep information about his administration from the public. read more
Nothing new. Republican hystericals are routinely triggered by their own shadows.