New “Insurrection Barbie” Ad Mocks Ted Cruz for Mad Obsession With Children’s Doll

An anti-Ted Cruz group is calling the Texas senator out for focusing more on the Barbie movie than actual issues affecting his constituents.

Cruz has led the charge among Republicans branding the forthcoming Barbie film as Chinese propaganda. One scene of the film has a map in the background that appears to include the so-called nine-dash line, a much-disputed division of territory in the South China Sea. China has used the nine-dash line to mark its controversial territorial claims in the region.

You need to see the map to understand how absurd Cruz’s complaint is. While Vietnam has banned the film over the map, the Philippines has decided to allow the movie because the “cartoonish map” actually only shows a “make-believe journey” of Barbie Land (half of Asia is missing!).

In honor of the senator’s new obsession, the Lose Cruz PAC unveiled a collection of Cruz-inspired Barbies in an ad on Thursday. “Since Ted Cruz is more focused on attacking Barbie than doing his job, we’re launching a new collection of Barbies inspired by his (lack of) work!” the group tweeted.

The dolls include “Insurrection Barbie,” who destroys democracy; “Podcaster Barbie,” who spreads the MAGA agenda; and “Cancun Barbie,” who literally flies away from her responsibilities.

In addition to hating on Barbie, Cruz has tweeted in recent days about opposing transgender rights, about how politicized the FBI and Justice Department are, and about how “woke” President Joe Biden’s climate agenda is.

The last one is particularly ironic given that Texas is currently boiling under a heat dome, which is sending temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Analysts say the record temperatures are likely due to climate change.

Florida’s chief financial officer is threatening to investigate and even fine Farmers Insurance for pulling out of the state—which he insists is due to wokeness, not climate change.

Farmers announced Tuesday that it will stop issuing new policies in Florida, and will not renew certain existing home, automobile, and umbrella policies throughout the state. The move will affect about 100,000 policies, nearly a third of Farmers’ business in Florida. The company explained that the decision was “necessary to effectively manage risk exposure.”

Floridians have seen their insurance costs skyrocket as the state gets hammered by climate change. A longer and stronger hurricane season has flooded the Sunshine State and destroyed homes and businesses. It’s quickly getting too expensive for insurance companies to keep reimbursing people for damages.

But Florida’s CFO Jimmy Patronis, a Republican, doesn’t think climate change is the problem.

“I sincerely believe that with today’s actions, Farmers Insurance is well on its way to becoming the Bud Light of insurance,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter, seemingly blaming the insurance company for being too woke.

“I have asked my team to put their heads together in holding Farmers Insurance accountable to Florida policy holders,” Patronis said. “I want additional scrutiny on this company.”

He said that his team would begin reviewing complaints against Farmers, which he threatened could result in a government investigation and even fines unless the carrier reverses course and stays in Florida.

Patronis was referring to Bud Light’s campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The business partnership infuriated people on the far right, who accused the beer maker of going “woke” and said they would switch to drinking other beers. Mulvaney revealed earlier this week that she has left the U.S., because she no longer feels safe in the country due to the right-wing backlash and the lack of support from Bud Light.

But Farmers is not the first insurance carrier to leave Florida. Bankers Insurance, and Lexington Insurance both withdrew from the state since last year.* Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers tried to make their state more appealing to carriers by passing a law that makes it harder to sue insurance companies and budgeting $3 billion to help with hurricane season. However, DeSantis separately vetoed funding for infrastructure and drainage improvements in areas that experienced heavy flooding during Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Farmers made no mention of lawsuits in its decision to leave Florida. Republicans “need to own this failure,” Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said Wednesday.

* This piece originally misstated the insurance companies that have already exited Florida.

Turns out Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is just full of hot air.

On Tuesday, the presidential candidate attended a press dinner on the Upper East Side of New York. But as Page Six reported, what began as an attempt to boost RFK Jr.’s campaign “descended into a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting.”

The magazine writes that an event guest had asked Kennedy about the environment. And that’s all it took to provoke “apparently drunk gossip columnist-turned-flack Doug Dechert, the host of the event,” who in a spurt of fury screamed: “The climate hoax!”

And that was then enough to wake up apparently “sleeping happily” art critic Anthony Haden-Guest, who all of a sudden opened his eyes and called Dechert a “miserable blob.”

“Shut up!” he barked at Dechert.

And chaos ensued. The duo rallied back and forth; Dechert continued on his soused rant, while Haden-Guest berated him as “f–king insane,” and “insignificant.”

Throughout it all, Page Six notes, Kenndy sat back and watched calmly—perhaps seeing value to both sides of the discourse.

But the stalemate apparently was unsatisfactory for Dechert. Page Six writes that “Dechert sensed the need for a new rhetorical tack, and let rip a loud, prolonged fart while yelling, as if to underscore his point, ‘I’m farting!’”

The whole room was stunned, unsure about what to do, and whether the plastered host was letting one loose at Haden-Guest, or at the concept of global warming generally.

“Regrettably, we may assure readers that there was no room for doubt that the climate changed in the immediate environs of the dinner table,” Page Six noted.

Kennedy kept his about-face, as another guest soon tried to change the subject. Nevertheless, another round of yelling was sparked right after, the longtime contemporaries going at each other once again.

On Wednesday, Dechert told Page Six “I apologize for using my flatulence as a medium of public commentary in your presence,” adding that he wished to be referred to as either a “gallivanting boulevardier” or a “beer-fueled sex rocket.”

Even then, the gallivanting boulevardier told the magazine that he has “zero tolerance for the climate hoax scam nonsense in any venue that I am personally funding.”

Kennedy—former member of Riverkeeper and the National Resources Defense Council, and founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance—has positioned himself as a climate change man-in-arms, but the evening embodied the incoherencies of his campaign. While previously throwing his support behind much-needed mass action like the Green New Deal, Kennedy posted a video just this week saying that “free markets are a much better way to stop pollution,” advancing the claim that climate change is “being used to control us through fear.”

Meanwhile, people across the nation remain in justifiable despair at the continued inaction on climate change. Just ask Vermonters or New Yorkers who lost their homes and livelihoods to this week’s disastrous flooding, or Texans and Floridians who have fallen ill or even lost loved ones to the sweltering heat, what they’re more afraid of: everything they’ve lost from climate destruction, or the government actually doing something about it.

Is Jim Jordan OK?

The Ohio representative was at a total loss for words Wednesday night while trying to explain his ridiculous investigation into the supposed politicization of the FBI.

The powerful House Judiciary Committee, which Jordan chairs, held a hearing on Wednesday during which angry Republicans grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray on a variety of pressing issues, including Hunter Biden’s laptop, if the bureau is shielding the Biden family, and whether the FBI is specifically targeting Donald Trump. Wray categorically denied all of their accusations.

Jordan appeared on Fox News to discuss the hearing. But when trying to push back on Wray’s claims to host Sean Hannity, Jordan suddenly was unable to string a sentence together.

He blamed his stumbling on feedback interference from his earpiece. But another reason could be that Jordan simply had nothing of actual value to say.

Republicans have repeatedly insisted that the FBI has become far too politicized, and that it unfairly targets Trump while failing to investigate President Joe Biden. Some lawmakers have even called to defund the FBI and the Department of Justice for their supposed bias. But the House GOP’s investigation into Biden, spearheaded by Jordan ally James Comer, has yet to produce any actual proof of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Trump has been charged with business fraud for his alleged role in making hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. He also has been charged with keeping national defense information without authorization, making false statements, and conspiring to obstruct justice. And he is still under investigation in Washington, D.C., and Georgia for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

As California Representative Ted Lieu pointed out during the hearing, “We don’t have a two-tiered system of justice. We have one Department of Justice that goes after criminals regardless of party ideology.”

A Wisconsin first-grade teacher is being fired for speaking out against her school district for banning her kids from singing a song about rainbows and togetherness.

On Wednesday, the Waukesha School District voted 9-0 to fire Heyer Elementary teacher Melissa Tempel, who was first put on leave in April and has been in limbo ever since.

The drama first began in March, after Tempel’s students were barred from singing “Rainbowland”—a Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton hit collaboration about hope, positivity, and love—at their first-grade concert. Administrators cited a district-wide policy on items “that may be considered political, controversial, or divisive,” as grounds to ban the song from being sung at the concert.

The administrators applied the policy to a song whose lyrics go like this:

All the hurt and the hate going on here (It needs to stop here)

We are rainbows, me and you

Every color, every hue

Let’s shine through (through)

Together, we can

Start livin’ in a rainbowland

Tempel tweeted about the ban, which brought massive public attention to the Waukesha School District. Shortly thereafter, Tempel was placed on administrative leave, with very little information made available to the public. Administrators have cited her initial public complaints about the ban as against school policy, which apparently prevents teachers from saying anything about administrators mysteriously censoring kids from singing about love and hope.

“I am deeply concerned that Ms. Tempel was removed from her classroom for standing up for them and what she knows is right,” a parent from Tempel’s class said at the time.

The issue all stems from Waukesha’s Board Policy 2240, “Controversial Issues in the Classroom,” which set guidelines for when the district would “permit” a so-called “controversial issue” to be introduced in the classroom. Along with the innocent Cyrus and Parton song, the policy has also been applied to bar students, teachers, and even classroom walls from donning rainbow designs, because of their association with the LGBTQ community. The over-policing has stirred up concern among parents and teachers alike who have found the policy to be repressive.

Officials may have set off claims for a First Amendment case. Tempel had previously said she would pursue such a claim against the district, after Superintendent Dr. Jim Sebert first recommended her termination back in May.

“I cannot allow others to be intimidated into silence,” she said at the time. “These are matters of public concern that the Waukesha Community has a right to know about and I stand by my decision to share the impact of Policy 2240 with the public. I will rest easy every night knowing that I did what was right for children.”