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GOP Senator Brags Gun Control ‘Not Gonna Happen’ Amid at Least 60 Separate Shooting Incidents in Just One Day

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Wednesday evening Americans learned of an active shooter situation at a Tulsa, Oklahoma hospital campus. Four people and the shooter died. But those who were keyed into social media soon learned there had been another shooting, at a high school in Los Angeles. And then horrifically, a third: at a Walmart in Pittson, Pennsylvania.

An NCRM investigation found at least 24 separate shooting incidents on Wednesday, based on published news reports, but the Gun Violence Archive, which also accesses police reports, documents 60 shootings on June 1.

As all of this was unfolding U.S. Senator John Cornyn tweeted, “Not gonna happen,” in response to a far right-wing talk show host’s claim that he is “open to making gun laws more restrictive.”

Cornyn is the Texas Republican charged by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to make the GOP case in Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy’s push to put together and pass gun control legislation after two mass shootings that got international attention recently.

Meanwhile, in Tulsa, four people had been shot dead and several others were injured. The gunman is believed to have killed himself. It is “the 233rd mass shooting of 2022.”

Here are more shootings, all from Wednesday:

In Los Angeles, a 10th-grade student was shot in front of Ulysses S. Grant High School in Valley Glen.

And a 20-year-old woman was shot at or near a Walmart in Pittston Township, Pennsylvania.

A 15-year-old boy was shot dead in a Wichita Falls, Texas shooting.

Also Wednesday a 16-year-old student in Berkeley, California was arrested after police received a tip he allegedly was recruiting other students for a mass shooting and bomb plot. “Police say they seized ‘parts to explosives and assault rifles, several knives’ and other concerning materials at the boy’s Berkeley home.”

And also in California Wednesday: “Police are searching for several shooting suspects who left one man dead and another injured at a park in Rialto.” The shooting happened “at Fergusson Park where six classes of first and second graders from Fitzgerald Elementary School were on an end-of-year field trip.”

Chandler, Arizona: Police are looking for a suspect who they say pulled a gun at a Little Caesar’s restaurant. Officers “opened fired.”

Dayton, Ohio: “A private security guard died after he was reportedly shot by a Montgomery County Jail inmate at Miami Valley Hospital on Wednesday morning.

Spring, Texas: “An AMBER Alert has been discontinued after Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office deputies were searching for a man who they believed shot and injured his wife before shooting her mother to death at a home in Spring Wednesday evening.” Both women were reportedly shot in the head. “Authorities said the suspect’s 14-year-old son might have witnessed the shootings and went next door to get help, and an “infant was said to be in imminent danger but has been found.”

Ottawa County, Michigan: “One person is dead and another is in critical condition after a shooting near Hope College Wednesday.” Both victims were riding bicycles. The person who died was 19-years-old.

Jacksonville, Florida: A man with “multiple gunshot wounds…was taken to a hospital in life-threatening condition.”

One person was shot dead and another person was injured in Maynardville, Tennessee.

Akron, Ohio: “1 dead, 2 injured after shooting at Akron memorial service.”

Florence, Alabama: One man was injured in a shooting at a Dollar General store.

In Kansas City, Missouri, a man and a woman both died from gunshot wounds injuries.

A 40-year-old woman was shot and killed and a child injured in Flint, Michigan.

A man died in a Sand City, California police officer shooting.

A 34-year old man was shot and killed and a woman wounded in a Pittsburg, Pennsylvania shooting.

Another man died in another police shooting in Prince George County, Virginia.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: “A 19-year-old man was shot multiple times in an apparent drive-by shooting in Center City Philadelphia, police say.” He was walking past a bakery.

One man was injured in a North Little Rock, Arkansas shooting.

Two people were hospitalized after a shooting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Norfolk, Virginia: Police shut down a highway after reports of a shooting, and “two victims arrived at Norfolk General Hospital with non life-threatening gunshot wounds.”

And a 25-year-old man “accidentally shot himself in the left middle finger,” in Wysox Township, Pennsylvania. “After the shooting, it’s believed he had left the Quality Inn parking lot at a high rate of speed before getting involved in a fatal crash a short time after leaving the scene.”

 

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Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.

Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”

The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.

In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”

READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman

Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”

Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.

“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.

Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.

“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”

Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”

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House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman

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The House Committee on Ethics has announced it is extending its investigation into U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) after an initial referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics. Congressman Jackson is a self-described “ultra-MAGA” Republican who has spread various conspiracy theories and was demoted by the Pentagon after his retirement from the military.

While the Ethics Committee is always reserved in its announcements, and did not state the issue it is investigating, it did note it will “announce its course of action in this matter on or before Monday, June 24, 2024.” Thursday’s announcement follows announcements in April and May of 2022 confirming its investigation into Rep. Jackson.

In September of 2021 the Office of Congressional Ethics, a separate, nonpartisan, and independent office, launched an investigation into Congressman Jackson, the former Physician to the President under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Dr. Jackson also served as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President under Trump, a position created by the now-indicted ex-president.

In May of 2022 the Office of Congressional Ethics released documents stating it had “found ‘substantial reason to believe’ Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) spent campaign funds on personal expenses,” Forbes reported at the time.

READ MORE: ‘Literally Willing to Take Bribes’: Report of Trump Promise to Big Oil Fuels Concerns

The Office had referred its findings to the House Ethics Committee one month earlier.

Congressman Jackson “refused to cooperate with the review,” CNN reported in 2022, noting it was “not the first time Jackson has come under scrutiny. Last year, the Pentagon inspector general outlined a scathing critique of his behavior, saying he drank alcohol and took sleeping pills while serving as a White House physician – and made ‘sexual and denigrating’ comments about a female subordinate. Jackson disputed the report’s findings.”

The New York Times in March reported on Dr. Jackson’s military demotion.

“In a report completed three years ago, the Pentagon found that Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson had mistreated subordinates while serving as the White House physician and drank and took sleeping pills on the job. The report recommended that he face discipline,” according to The Times. “Now it turns out that the Navy quietly punished him the next year. Though he had retired from the military in 2019, he was demoted to captain — a sanction that he has not publicly acknowledged.”

READ MORE: ‘Greatest Challenge of Our Generation’: Johnson Vows to ‘Round Up’ 11 Million Undocumented People

Last summer at a Texas rodeo Congressman Jackson attempted to assist a person experiencing a medical event, but was “briefly detained” by law enforcement officers, his office stated, after reportedly refusing to move away from the woman.

According to The Texas Tribune, Jackson spewed multiple profanities at a trooper.

“’You are a f*cking full-on dick!’ Jackson told the trooper after being brought off the ground, according to bodycam footage provided by the Department of Public Safety. ‘You better recalculate, motherf*cker!'”

“I’m gonna call the governor tomorrow and I’m gonna talk to him about this sh*t because this is f*ckin’ ridiculous,” Jackson also reportedly said. “F*ckin’ ridiculous.”

The Tribune reported Jackson’s “office has emphasized he was ‘not drinking,’ though the sheriff’s report challenges that assertion.”

READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’

 

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‘Literally Willing to Take Bribes’: Report of Trump Promise to Big Oil Fuels Concerns

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Bombshell reports from The Washington Post and Politico are fueling concerns over the promises 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly has been making to “Big Oil.”

“What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign,” is The Washington Post’s headline.

“Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry,” The Post reported.

“You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.”

“Giving $1 billion would be a ‘deal,’ Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people,” The Post added.

“Political contributing is often a type of legalized bribery,” The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo remarked. “But the way Trump is so explicit about making a ‘deal’ is going to raise eyebrows.”

READ MORE: ‘Greatest Challenge of Our Generation’: Johnson Vows to ‘Round Up’ 11 Million Undocumented People

It has.

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, an attorney and University of California, Berkeley professor of public policy issued this warning:

“Trump asked Big Oil execs to give him $1 billion for his campaign. He promised lower taxes and a rollback of Biden’s climate regulations and clean energy programs in return. Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet. Be warned,” Reich wrote.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) also issued a warning: “Donald Trump is saying the quiet part out loud. Re-electing him will guarantee ‘deals’ that work against our climate future. He cares more about campaign donations from oil tycoons than the fate of future generations and the health of our planet. Take him at his word.”

“We cannot believe this,” wrote government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “Donald Trump essentially told a room full of oil executives ‘raise a billion dollars for me and I’ll get rid of the regulations that you want.’ This is blatantly corrupt behavior.”

READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’

Former LA Times reporter Steve Weinstein called it, “Bribery straight up.”

“Wow,” exclaimed U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) “a report today finds donald trump demanded a straight up billion dollar bribe from oil executives. Republicans want to sell you out to big oil to line their pockets.”

Liberal Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century wrote: “New reporting uncovered Trump is already planning to sell the White House to the highest bidder. He’s demanding a $1 billion bribe from oil execs in exchange for massive tax cuts and the repeal of environmental protections and clean energy investments.”

Josh Dorner, a communications executive, responded to the Washington Post’s Heather Long’s summation of the paper’s report, by writing: “Bribery, how does it work?”

Marketing executive Jason Karsh, also responding to Long’s post, wrote: “How cool is it to have a presidential candidate so broke and so corrupt that he’s asking for bribes out in the open. I mean, he’s a Republican so nothing will happen, but this is so clearly what the founders intended, it’s just … *wipes a tear*”

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom commented, “Big Oil is literally writing up Executive Orders for Trump to sign on Day 1 — with the promise of $1 billion in return. He’s giving away our planet in return for cash. Have we just accepted this as the new norm??”

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Laurie Garrett in a lengthy social media thread reached back into history and compared Trump’s alleged billion-dollar request to the Teapot Dome scandal. “Until now, it was the biggest presidential corruption case in US history,” she wrote.

“The Teapot Dome Scandal was, in the 1920s, the greatest threat to the integrity of the US Presidency the Nation had experienced. Not only was Big Oil bribery unfolding, but Harding, a golfer and womanizer, & had a child out of wedlock,” she noted in one post.

See the social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Ran a Bribery Center Blocks From the White House’: Comer Mocked for Claiming No Evidence of Trump Influence Peddling

 

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