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| Porn Users Forum » The truth exposed: Donald J. Trump is Hitler's secret love child. |
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| 04-17-22 07:58am - 980 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The truth exposed: Donald J. Trump is Hitler's secret love child. Buried beneath a mass of corruption and lies, a dirty secret is exposed: Donald J. Trump is Hitler's secret love child. That is why Trump is such a magnet to all Neo-Nazi party loyalists. Trump is the hidden icon of Nazi Germany. And the right-hand man of Vlad Putin in America. Who else could have risen from obscurity and become the fightenest, most bravest, most heroic President of the Untied States of Trumperland? God's annointed messenger on Earth? Who will make America great again? Vote for Trump!!! He will make us whole, and bring down Joe Biden and other scummy Democrats who are trying to destroy our White America!!! | |
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| 04-17-22 08:25am - 980 days | #2 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Mark Wahlberg's Beverly Park mega-mansion lists for $87.5 million LA Times April 12, 2022, 7:42 AM Mark Wahlberg’s mega-mansion — an amenity-loaded compound complete with a golf course, skate park and grotto — just surfaced for sale at $87.5 million in Beverly Park. If the movie star gets his price (or anything close), it’ll be the second-biggest home sale in Southern California so far this year. The current crown belongs to The One, which was auctioned off for $141 million in March. There’s a reason the mansion carries such a big price tag. At 30,500 square feet, it’s the seventh-largest house currently on the market in Los Angeles County — and while many of the top spots are occupied by boxy, modern spec mansions, Wahlberg’s place stands on its own as a European-style showplace that mixes Old World style with an abundance of modern amenities. Set on more than six acres, the estate is in Beverly Park, a star-studded neighborhood that regularly sees sales north of $30 million. In February, Sylvester Stallone sold his home there to Adele for $58 million. 10 Photos Mark Wahlberg’s mega-mansion See Gallery Wahlberg, who’s starring in the biographical drama “Father Stu,” bought the property for $8.25 million in 2009 and commissioned mega-mansion architect Richard Landry to build the home. Landry finished it five years later, fitting 12 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms and a myriad of lavish living spaces into the two-story floor plan. A motor court with a fountain approaches the column-lined exterior, and inside, dual staircases set a stately tone in the grand entry. Other highlights include a two-story wood-paneled library, double-island kitchen, movie theater, wine cellar, multiple bars and massive gym. Terraces line the second story, overlooking a park-like backyard with gardens, lawns, a grotto-style swimming pool, skate park and five-hole golf course with sand traps. Wahlberg, a Massachusetts native, also added a basketball court emblazoned with the Boston Celtics logo. Wahlberg grew to stardom as a member of the hip-hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch before transitioning to acting with notable credits in “Boogie Nights,” “Planet of the Apes” and “The Other Guys.” The 50-year-old has received two Oscar nominations: one for “The Departed” and one for “The Fighter.” Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate agency holds the listing. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. | |
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| 04-19-22 04:00am - 978 days | #3 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
People file suit to disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for Congress. Is this legal? Can you stop a crazy person for running for Congress? Just because they are crazy, or want to riot and bring down a US president, can you stop them from running for Congress? Congress people have the right to lie, because it's covered by the Constitution under the right of political free speech. And Greene demands the right to carry a handgun in Washington DC, as part of the right to defend herself against enemies both foreign and domestic. So why can't she run for Congress? ------ ------ Judge: Georgia voters can challenge Greene's reelection run Associated Press April 19, 2022, 5:32 AM ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ruled that a group of Georgia voters can proceed with legal efforts seeking to disqualify U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for reelection to Congress, citing her role in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. The challenge filed last month with the Georgia secretary of state’s office alleges that Greene, a Republican, helped facilitate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. That violates a rarely cited provision of the 14th Amendment and makes her ineligible to run for reelection, according to the challenge. The amendment says no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” Ratified shortly after the Civil War, it was meant in part to keep representatives who had fought for the Confederacy from returning to Congress. Greene, 47, filed a lawsuit earlier this month asking a judge to declare that the law that the voters are using to challenge her eligibility is itself unconstitutional and to prohibit state officials from enforcing it. Judge Amy Totenberg, in a 73-page ruling, denied Greene’s request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. Totenberg, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by President Barack Obama, wrote that Greene had failed to meet the “burden of persuasion” in her request for injunctive relief. Georgia law says any voter who is eligible to vote for a candidate may challenge that candidate’s qualifications by filing a written complaint within two weeks after the deadline for qualifying. The secretary of state must then notify the candidate of the challenge and request a hearing before an administrative law judge. After holding a hearing, the administrative law judge presents findings to the secretary of state, who then must determine whether the candidate is qualified. Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group, filed the challenge March 24 on behalf of the group of voters. Greene said in her lawsuit that she “vigorously denies that she ‘aided and engaged in insurrection to obstruct the peaceful transfer of presidential power.” | |
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| 04-19-22 04:13am - 978 days | #4 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
BLM (Black Lives Matter) leaders are facing questions about where the funds they've collected have gone. Some people will question if the money collected has been spent wisely. So people need to have faith in their leaders. This is why black people need to put a man in charge who has honor, and a proven record of reliability: Put Donald J. Trump in charge of the BLM group: a man with proven business skills, a man who will know how to best use those funds to lead the group wisely. Donald J. Trump, the man who will make America great again. With whiteness for all. Amen. ------ ------ BLM leaders dismiss questions over use of donations NBC Universal Char Adams April 12, 2022, 11:57 AM Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement are dismissing allegations that they mismanaged millions of dollars after a scathing New York Magazine report revealed that they had purchased a $6 million home in Southern California with donated funds. Patrisse Cullors, co-founder and former executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM Los Angeles and co-director of BLM Grassroots, spoke to reporters Monday during a closed roundtable discussion, dismissing recent articles about the organization’s finances as media attacks and “misinformation and disinformation,” and claiming that any lack of transparency about the multimillion dollar property was out of concern for the leaders’ safety. “Almost immediately upon closing, the attacks on me, and BLM, which also means Melina and others, escalated,” Cullors said, adding that she stayed at the home for four nights while the FBI investigated a death threat against her. “So we did use the campus as a haven, as a safe place. That derailed an announcement strategy. Conditions changed, and that’s it.” Cullors was named executive director of the global network foundation in July 2020 and left the organization last spring. The discussion came a week after the New York Magazine report by Sean Campbell renewed questions about the organization’s use of donations. The report revealed that the group secretly bought the 6,500-square-foot house in October 2020 as a hub and headquarters for its members to create content promoting social justice. The report only fueled questions about the organization’s finances, just a year after the foundation revealed a detailed look at its funds for the first time. The Associated Press reported then that the foundation said it had taken in just over $90 million in 2020 and committed $21.7 million in grant funding to both official and unofficial BLM chapters, along with 30 other Black-led grassroots organizations. The foundation put its operating budget at $8.4 million. The BLM Movement was born in 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin; the global network was created shortly after and, today, has more than 40 chapters around the world, according to the BLM LA website. The movement has worked to advocate for victims of police violence and educate the public about systemic issues plaguing Black communities. Along with questions about the remainder of the $90 million, leaders from local chapters who said they’ve received little to no funding from the organization said they’ve wondered where money raised before 2020 has gone. Cullors said the organization did not receive much money until 2020 and denied any claims to the contrary. “It just isn’t true. Our largest donor base, previous to me resigning, was always small dollar donors,” Cullors said. “It’s just not true that millions were poured in. At most, our budget was at $1.4” million. Chelsea Fuller, a spokesperson for Cullors and Abdullah, told reporters that current leaders of the foundation declined to be part of the discussion on Monday. A spokesperson for the organization said that “the Foundation intends to do its own media in the near future” and directed NBC News to a statement the group shared Monday on Twitter. The statement highlights that the foundation has donated some $3 million to families affected by Covid and more than $25 million to “Black-led front-line” organizations around the world. “We are embracing this moment as an opportunity for accountability, healing, truth-telling, and transparency,” the statement reads. “We understand the necessity of working intentionally to rebuild trust so we can continue forging a new path that sustains Black people for generations.” NBCBLK previously reported on the tension between the national organization and its local chapters. In an attempt to disperse some of the 2020 funds, the foundation launched BLM Grassroots, a $6.5 million fund in which local chapters could apply for grants of up to $500,000. Local organizers said then that they had no knowledge that such a fund was being created, and that they were not asked for input about the appointment of Cullors as executive director of the network. This, they said then, was just another example of the organization’s lack of transparency. “This is not a new conversation we’re having. It’s one that keeps coming up,” Ariel Lipscomb, an organizer with BLM Denver, said in 2020. “We’ve consistently asked for accountability. We’ve consistently asked for transparency. We’ve consistently asked for shared power and for the actions of BLMGNF to reflect the work that we do.” The renowned scholar, writer and activist Angela Davis joined the discussion Monday and admitted that she was “not aware of all of the details” regarding allegations of mismanaged funds. Still, she equated the latest controversy with “attacks to discredit the movement” that have historically plagued Black movements. | |
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| 04-19-22 04:22am - 978 days | #5 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
John Oliver fails to endorse Dr. Oz. This shows a lack of solidarity for TV personalities. Donald J. Trump has endorsed Dr. Oz. So why can't John Oliver? ---- ---- John Oliver rips Dr. Oz’s 'sh*t show' Senate campaign: 'Hard to pick a low point' Yahoo TV Stephen Proctor April 18, 2022, 12:12 AM On Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Sunday, Oliver took aim at Dr. Mehmet Oz and his U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania. Oz was a surprising entry into the Republican primary, and was reportedly met with mockery among Pennsylvania Republicans. With Oz now in full campaign mode, Oliver joined in on that mockery. “Trump has endorsed Dr. Oz, and we’ve talked about Dr. Oz’s daytime snake oil carnival in detail before,” Oliver said. “So I didn’t think his campaign could surprise me, but it has, because it’s been a sh*t show.” Oz has been posting videos of himself at the grocery store, and pumping gas in order to take shots at President Biden over the prices. But in the past, he has posted videos of his lavish lifestyle, and is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so Oliver isn’t buying Oz’s indignation. To prove his point, Oliver showed a video Oz posted of himself wakeboarding in Italy. “That is Dr. Oz wake surfing with the caption ‘surfin’ through #Italy’ to the song 'My Life Be Like.' And the truth is, that is what his life be like because he’s f**king rich, which means he gets to do stuff like that,” Oliver said. “But what he doesn’t get to do though, is stand in front of gas pumps and pretend like he’s personally affected by those numbers.” As stated above, Oz’s entry into the race was not initially well-received by some, and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement received backlash. Oz has tried to win over Republican voters with gun-rights and anti-abortion posts, but Oliver believes the TV doctor’s videos could be his downfall despite his having spent countless hours in front of cameras. “Maybe that shift to the right and the Trump endorsement will help him win, but if that happens, it’ll be pretty remarkable,” Oliver said. “Because for a man who’s made a career out of talking into a camera, it is amazing how bad he’s been at doing that during this campaign. It’s honestly hard to pick a low point.” Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO. | |
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| 04-19-22 04:33am - 978 days | #6 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Alex Jones' InforWars files for bankruptcy. This is a genius move. This will shield the assets from critics who want to take money from Alex Jones, who has claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax. Did the US government create a fake crime, where actors put on a show that was treated as a real event by the Fake News that Donald J. Trump uncovered? Did Donald J. Trump show the nation that the US government, before he took charge, was trying to bring down America with fake news???? Bring back Donald J. Trump, and we can be great again. ----- ----- Alex Jones' InfoWars files for bankruptcy in U.S. court Reuters April 18, 2022, 12:05 PM (Reuters) -Far-right wing website InfoWars on Sunday filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in the face of multiple defamation lawsuits. Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on all civil litigation matters and allow companies to prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational. Alex Jones, founder of InfoWars, was found liable for damages in a trio of lawsuits last year filed after he falsely claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax. Jones claimed the shooting, in which 20 children and six school employees were shot dead at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, was fabricated by gun-control advocates and mainstream media. Sandy Hook families in late March rejected Jones' offer to settle their defamation lawsuit and reopened the case. Jones had offered to pay $120,000 to each of the 13 plaintiffs to settle the case. Each of the plaintiffs turned down the settlement offer in court documents, saying, "The so-called offer is a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook." According to Sunday's court filings, InfoWars listed its estimated assets in the range of $0-$50,000 and estimated liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million. Jones, a vocal supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump, was previously subpoenaed by the House of Representatives committee probing the January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. (Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani, Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Hugh Lawson) | |
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| 04-19-22 06:05am - 978 days | #7 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Donald J. Trump urges police and concerned citizens to carry 357 Magnum Revolvers to eradicate Democrats and other Evil Scum and to make America Great Again. Vote for Donald J. Trump, the fighthenest, fittest President of the Untied States of Trumperland we've ever seen. ---- ---- National Censorship battles’ new frontier: Your public library Conservatives are teaming with politicians to remove books and gut library boards Image without a caption By Annie Gowen April 17, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT LLANO, Tex. — In early November, an email dropped into the inbox of Judge Ron Cunningham, the silver-haired head chair of the governing body of Llano County in Texas’s picturesque Hill Country. The subject line read “Pornographic Filth at the Llano Public Libraries.” “It came to my attention a few weeks ago that pornographic filth has been discovered at the Llano library,” wrote Bonnie Wallace, a 54-year-old local church volunteer. “I’m not advocating for any book to be censored but to be RELOCATED to the ADULT section. … It is the only way I can think of to prohibit censorship of books I do agree with, mainly the Bible, if more radicals come to town and want to use the fact that we censored these books against us.” Wallace had attached an Excel spreadsheet of about 60 books she found objectionable, including those about transgender teens, sex education and race, including such notable works as “Between the World and Me,” by author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, an exploration of the country’s history written as a letter to his adolescent son. Not long after, the county’s chief librarian sent the list to Suzette Baker, head of one of the library’s three branches. “She told me to look at pulling the books off the shelf and possibly putting them behind the counter. I told them that was censorship,” Baker said. Wallace’s list was the opening salvo in a censorship battle that is unlikely to end well for proponents of free speech in this county of 21,000 nestled in rolling hills of mesquite trees and cactus northwest of Austin. Leaders have taken works as seemingly innocuous as the popular children’s picture book “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak off the shelves, closed library board meetings to the public and named Wallace the vice chair of a new library board stacked with conservative appointees — some of whom did not even have library cards. With these actions, Llano joins a growing number of communities across America where conservatives have mounted challenges to books and other content related to race, sex, gender and other subjects they deem inappropriate. A movement that started in schools has rapidly expanded to public libraries, accounting for 37 percent of book challenges last year, according to the American Library Association. Conservative activists in several states, including Texas, Montana and Louisiana have joined forces with like-minded officials to dissolve libraries’ governing bodies, rewrite or delete censorship protections, and remove books outside of official challenge procedures. “The danger is that we start to have information and books that only address one viewpoint that are okayed by just one certain group,” said Mary Woodward, president-elect of the Texas Library Association. “We lose that diversity of thought and diversity of ideas libraries are known for — and only represent one viewpoint that is the loudest,” said Woodward, noting that there have been an estimated 17 challenges leveled at public libraries in Texas recently and that she expects many more. Leila Green Little, a parent and board member of the Llano County Library System Foundation, said her anti-censorship group obtained dozens of emails from country officials that reveal the outsize influence a small but vocal group of conservative Christian and tea party activists wielded over the county commissioners to reshape the library system to their own ideals. In one of the emails, which were obtained through a public records request and shared with The Washington Post, Cunningham seemed to question whether public libraries were even necessary. “The board also needs to recognize that the county is not mandated by law to provide a public library,” Cunningham wrote to Wallace in January. He declined to comment for this story but said in a statement that the county was aware of citizen concerns and “is committed to providing excellent public library services to our patrons consistent with community expectations and standards, as well as operating within compliance of Texas and Federal statutes.” Dissent over removing books Cunningham, a two-term judge who was once part of the security detail for then-Gov. George W. Bush, acted quickly on the complaints. He strode into the main library a few weeks later and took two books off the shelves — Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen” — because some parents had objected to the main character in the story, a little boy, appearing nude — and “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health,” a sex education book for parents and children ages 10 and up, that includes color illustrations of the human body and sex acts. He also ordered librarians to pause buying new material and to pull “any books with photos of naked or sexual conduct regardless if they are animated or actual photos,” emails reviewed by The Washington Post showed. Advertisement Texas school districts were already ablaze with book challenges in October, when state Rep. Matt Krause (R), chair of the General Investigating Committee, asked school districts for information on his own list of 850 books, most of them gender- and race-themed, that “might make children feel discomfort, guilt or anguish.” Gov. Greg Abbott (R) jumped into the fray, calling for an investigation of “pornography” in school libraries. One school district removed more than 100 books, although most were reviewed and returned. Schools nationwide are quietly removing books from their shelves EveryLibrary, a national political action committee for libraries that tracks such challenges, said it has seen “dozens of new attacks” on libraries, their governing bodies and policies since the first of the year — in Texas as well as ongoing cases in Montana and Louisiana. In some cases, the challengers are being assisted by growing national networks such as the parental rights group Moms for Liberty or spurred on by conservative public policy organizations like Heritage Action for America, the ALA has said. 'Parental rights' is the new rallying cry for conservative moms group At the county’s main library in Llano, director Amber Milum said in an interview that she had already taken it upon herself to put some books away in a file cabinet in her office as early as August, including two popular read-aloud picture books aimed at amusing kids: “I Need a New Butt!” and “Freddie the Farting Snowman.” The moves circumvented the library’s established practices on objectionable content — including a challenge form to be reviewed by librarians. Isolating or removing books because of subjective or “personal opinions” — finding the content offensive or distasteful, for example — could open up a library to a First Amendment challenge, experts said. Advertisement “We didn’t fill out a form, everyone just came in and talked to me personally,” Milum said. “I took notes on everything that everybody was saying, and that’s how it happened.” Meanwhile, Baker, head librarian at the library branch in the unincorporated community of Kingsland, about 23 miles from Llano, continued to push back. An Army veteran whose grandfather fought in World War II and who has a son in Afghanistan, said she is a firm believer in the Bill of Rights. “I don’t think we should give in. If we give them even an inch, they will think they can do whatever they want,” she wrote in an email to Milum. Then in December, the commissioners voted to suspend the county’s e-book system, OverDrive, because, they said, it lacked sufficient parental controls, which also cut off access for the elderly, people with disabilities or those otherwise unable to visit a physical library. Officials say they plan on replacing the system. They also shuttered the libraries for three days just before Christmas to review and reorganize the teen and children’s collections. “God has been so good to us … please continue to pray for the librarians and that their eyes would be open to the truth,” Rochelle Wells, a new member of the library board, wrote in an email. “They are closing the library for 3 days which are to be entirely devoted to removing books that contain pornographic content.” Green Little said not much is known about what administrators did during the time the libraries were closed. The book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” a work about systemic racism by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Isabel Wilkerson, has mysteriously vanished, and the fate of several other works remains unknown, she said. “When I heard books were being taken out of the library, that was a big-time problem for me,” she said. “For others it was the fact that the county was not operating transparently. A small group of private citizens had an inordinate amount of control over county workings.” More books are banned than ever before Green Little, a mother of two who lives with her family on an 1800s-era cattle ranch outside of town, said it was not easy to take a stand in conservative Llano County, where nearly 80 percent of the majority-White population voted for President Donald Trump in 2020. A Confederate flag still flies at the Civil War memorial. | |
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| 04-21-22 07:43pm - 976 days | #8 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Donald Trump ordered to pay $1.3 million to a White House aide. It can be expensive to be the object of Trump's lawsuits. ----- ----- Trump campaign ordered to pay $1.3 million to Omarosa Manigault Newman HuffPost April 21, 2022, 1:18 PM Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was ordered to pay $1.3 million in legal fees Tuesday to former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman after he accused her of breaking a nondisclosure agreement with a tell-all book. A court arbitrator ordered the massive award after Trump unsuccessfully sued the former “Apprentice” star over her 2018 book, “Unhinged,” which came out a year after her firing from the White House. Trump contested that a nondisclosure agreement she signed while working for his campaign in 2016 prohibited her from disclosing “confidential information.” A court arbitrator on Tuesday ordered the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump to pay Omarosa Manigault Newman $1.3 million to cover her legal fees over a lawsuit that was filed over a tell-all book she published. (Photo: Paul Morigi via Getty Images) A court arbitrator on Tuesday ordered the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump to pay Omarosa Manigault Newman $1.3 million to cover her legal fees over a lawsuit that was filed over a tell-all book she published. (Photo: Paul Morigi via Getty Images) Arbitrator T. Andrew Brown said the agreement was too vague to be enforced, however, and last September ruled that Trump would have to pay Manigault Newman’s legal fees. That total on Tuesday came out to $1,310,873. “We will remove golden toilets if we have to to collect the $1.3 million, plus interest,” her attorney, John Phillips, tweeted Wednesday while celebrating the arbitrator’s decision. Manigault Newman also celebrated the award on Twitter while calling it a “David vs. Goliath” moment. Trump and his campaign did not immediately comment on the order. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. | |
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| 04-22-22 04:53pm - 975 days | #9 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Give me liberty or give me death. But don't put me in jail, or make me pay any fines. As a Congresswoman, I'm allowed to speak my mind. And if I speak treason, well, forget about it: because I have, if it means going to jail or paying fines. America the Great, the Whitest, Purest Country on Earth. Vote for Trump. ---- ---- Marjorie Taylor Greene confronted with past statements regarding violence in court hearing Yahoo News Jon Ward April 22, 2022, 2:08 PM Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., faced questioning under oath Friday in a Georgia elections court from lawyers who say she violated the Constitution by aiding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and should therefore be disqualified from running for reelection. After the hearing, Judge Charles Beaudrot will issue a decision with his findings to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has the final authority to determine whether Greene is qualified to appear on a ballot, though his decision can be appealed in state court. The Georgia primary is on May 24. Raffensperger himself faces a tough primary challenge from another Republican who has parroted former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Lawyers for plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit against Greene on behalf of voters in her district attempted to establish that her statements in the days and years leading up to Jan. 6 incited and aided the violent assault on the Capitol. The attorneys sought to prove that she violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which has a clause forbidding any lawmaker from having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [Constitution], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Greene, who had attempted to evade the hearing through legal filings seeking to quash the lawsuit against her, testified for more than three hours in a state administrative court hearing in Atlanta. Her attorney, James Bopp, argued that the congresswoman had to have “engaged” in insurrection and not simply “aided” it in order to be found in violation of the Constitution. He also said that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection, but rather a riot and mob violence. The plaintiffs’ attorneys, Ron Fein and Andrew Celli, presented Greene with a series of statements she made that they said demonstrated a pattern of advocating for violence in the two years leading up to her election in 2020. They also questioned her about her knowledge of the potential for violence on Jan. 6, and statements she made spreading lies about a rigged election and urging Trump supporters to stop the transfer of power. Celli’s cross-examination began with comments by Greene in 2019, when she said that treason is “a crime punishable by death” and that “Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.” She also liked a comment on Facebook that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove Pelosi from office. Not long after that, during a trip to Washington, D.C., in February 2019, Greene said on Facebook Live that Pelosi would “suffer death or she’ll be in prison” because of her “treason.” Greene, for her part, spent most of her time on the stand, under oath, telling the lawyers that she did not remember or recall making such statements. When shown video evidence of her past comments, she tried to downplay her remarks, argued that a video might have been edited or incomplete, or claimed that her social media postings might have been made by members of her staff. Ahead of that trip to D.C., Greene — who would launch her candidacy for Congress a few months later — called on others to come with her on Feb. 23, 2019, to pressure lawmakers to fund a border wall. “If we have a sea of people shut down the streets, if we shut down everything. If we flood the Capitol building, flood all of the government buildings. Go inside. These are public buildings. We own them,” she said. Celli and lawyers for the plaintiffs listed these comments to demonstrate that Greene had called in the past for people to attempt to intimidate government officials by going into government buildings with the threat of violence. “We can do it peacefully. We can. I hope we don’t have to do it the other way. I hope not. But we should feel like we will if we have to,” Greene said. “Because we are the American people." “If you show up in big numbers on Feb. 23, oh I promise you, I promise you, they’ll be struck with fear on the inside,” she said. Bopp said Greene’s language was nothing more than “hyperbole that is commonly used.” James Bopp, attorney for Marjorie Taylor Greene. During questioning, Greene said she did not know if she had liked the comment about a bullet to Pelosi’s head. “I have had many people manage my social media account,” she said. “I have no idea who liked that comment.” Celli then moved on to comments made by Greene after the 2020 election. He spent a long time discussing the context behind her comments the day before the insurrection that referenced the American Revolution. “This is our 1776 moment,” Greene said on Jan. 5 during an interview with Newsmax, a right-wing TV station. “What was done in 1776 was to stop a tyrannical government with guns?” Celli asked Greene. She agreed: “Sure.” But she added, “I’ve always said I’m against violence.” Greene claimed her reference to 1776 was a comment only about objecting to the certification of the election results in Congress. But Celli asked her about another comment. He asked if she had said that “the peaceful transfer of power” should not be allowed. “I don’t recall,” Greene said. In response, Celli said, “Let’s go to the videotape.” He played a video of her entire comment. “You can’t allow it to just transfer power peacefully like Joe Biden wants and allow him to become our president, because he did not win this election,” she had said. Greene’s only defense was that this was “a partial statement.” The congresswoman also said she was “a victim of the riot that day” because she was afraid for her safety. | |
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| 04-24-22 04:14am - 973 days | #10 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Trump says he's rather be a dictator than a dummie. That's why he feels entitled to be president of the US. Sleepy Joe Biden is a dummy. Don't you want a winner to be president? A man who will make America great again? ----- ----- Trump says he'd rather be 'a dictator' than 'a dumb person' after bragging about the cognitive test he took in 2018 Jake Lahut Fri, April 22, 2022, 8:12 AM Former President Donald Trump mused about embracing being portrayed as a dictator. Trump made the remarks at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla. on Thursday night. "Which would you rather be, a dumb person or a dictator? Perhaps a dictator would be better," he said. Former President Donald Trump on Thursday joked about being depicted as "a dictator" by the press, which he assumed was the result of the cognitive test he has repeatedly bragged about passing in 2018. "Which would you rather be, a dumb person or a dictator?" Trump said Thursday night at the Heritage Foundation's annual leadership conference in Florida at the Ritz-Carlton resort on Amelia Island. "Perhaps a dictator would be better," he continued. "I don't want to be a dumb person." —Acyn (@Acyn) April 21, 2022 In the same speech, Trump said he was surprised nobody ever found out that he told the president of a NATO country in a closed door meeting that the US would not come to their protection if they didn't increase their defense spending. Experts on authoritarianism have warned that Trump not only frequently praises strongmen dictators on the world stage, but also exhibits authoritarian tendencies of his own, culminating in the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill. In the former president's assessment, the dictator chatter only began because he did so well on a cognitive test he took in 2018. "First they said, 'Not too smart,'" Trump said earlier in his speech. "Well that all went away, and I said, 'Doc Ronny [Jackson], I gotta take a test.' He said, "You know the problem is, sir, this is essentially a public place.' One of the great hospitals of the world, right? You have a series of doctors sitting there and all, and if you do badly, the word's gonna get out ... And I did it in front of a panel, and we aced it. And the one person said, 'That's the first time I've ever seen anyone ace it.' So all of that stuff stopped ... but then they made me a dictator instead." The test Trump took is called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, designed to detect signs of dementia. It was also the source of his viral "person, woman, man, camera, TV" remarks from July 2020. Read the original article on Business Insider | |
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| 04-24-22 04:53am - 973 days | #11 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans have lied about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the fightenest, bravest, most honest president of the US we've ever seen. So if a Republican says Trump is not God's annointed son on Earth, that Republican should be shot for treason. Republicans who have criticized Trump. Shame on them. They should be dragged through the streets of Washington, and dumped into a sewer, where they should be left to rot. ------- ------- The New York Times McCarthy's Lie Puts GOP Hypocrisy on Trump on Display Annie Karni Sat, April 23, 2022, 7:21 AM House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times) House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times) WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s denial of disparaging comments he made about President Donald Trump after the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021, exposed a widely known but seldom seen phenomenon in Washington: the hypocrisy of Republicans who have privately scorned Trump while publicly defending him. McCarthy, R-Calif., who is campaigning to be speaker of the House if his party wins the majority in November, had dismissed as “totally false and wrong” a report that he had told fellow GOP leaders he would urge Trump to resign from office after the riot. But an audio recording of the conversation revealed McCarthy’s denial to be a lie. For McCarthy, the immediate political problem was not being caught in a lie. In the Republican Party, which has coalesced around Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, falsehoods have become routine and even accepted. The greater danger for McCarthy on Friday had been the truth — that, with the disclosure of his negative comments about Trump, he might invite the ire of the former president, who maintains a stranglehold on his party and on a powerful faction of extremist House members who already pose the greatest risk to his political future. But by Friday evening, it appeared the danger would not materialize, as Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that their relationship remained good. “I think it’s all a big compliment, frankly,” Trump told the Journal, referring to McCarthy and other Republicans who criticized him immediately after the Capitol attack but then relented. “They realized they were wrong and supported me.” For a Republican leader who has prostrated himself before Trump in ways large and small — including famously sorting through a package of Starbursts to present him with only his favorite red and pink candies — the lie was McCarthy's latest show of loyalty. Some of Trump’s fiercest defenders on Capitol Hill have long criticized the former president and his family members behind closed doors, venting about his erratic policy decisions and tweets while expressing their total fealty in public. The release of the audio of McCarthy’s comments was a rare moment when the duplicity was on display. McCarthy spent Friday morning working the phones, calling members of his conference to gauge their level of concern about the recording. A source familiar with the conversations said his team had also been asking rank-and-file members to post tweets supporting McCarthy for speaker. “Republicans are going to take back the majority in November and when we do, Kevin McCarthy will be our Speaker,” Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, tweeted Friday. Advisers to Trump said that the two had spoken Thursday morning, after the story became public, and had what they called “a good conversation.” Another person familiar with the talks said that the two spoke again Thursday night, after the audio was released showing that McCarthy’s denial had been a lie, and that Trump had not appeared to be rattled by the statements. McCarthy’s prime concern Friday, according to a person familiar with the situation, was about Republicans he thought would be upset by his private criticism of Trump — not those who might be alarmed by the fact that he had been exposed as a liar in denying it. As if to underline the point, McCarthy repeated the falsehood Friday, telling reporters in Ridgecrest, California, “I never thought that he should resign.” There were few expressions of outrage from Republican members of Congress about their leader — one who would be in line to succeed the president if he achieves his aspiration of being speaker of the House — having been caught in a falsehood. They appeared to be following the lead of Trump. The former president “probably realizes this is all being driven by the left and the mainstream media,” said Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, noting that it would work in McCarthy’s favor that the recording was first aired on an MSNBC broadcast hosted by Rachel Maddow, a frequent target of the right. “The speaker battle will happen after we win back the majority.” McCarthy’s private expressions of outrage most likely did not come as any surprise to Trump, who was irate when the congressman criticized him immediately after the Capitol assault in an unusually sharp House floor speech, saying he “bears responsibility” for the riot and proposing that he be censured. But McCarthy soon changed his tune after visiting the former president at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He walked back his condemnations, ultimately fought the creation of an inquiry and led an effort to purge Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her House leadership post for speaking out against Trump. Some Republican lawmakers privately downplayed the significance of the taped conversation. They noted that McCarthy was not known as a truth-teller or someone who has been deeply loyal to Trump. Rather, he has built his reputation as a political operator whose approach is to fall in line with where a majority of his conference is heading. The recording, those members said, merely revealed McCarthy for the person his conference knew him to be. And for now, there was no obvious alternative to challenge him in a race for speaker. But McCarthy is also up against powerful political enemies who hold sway with the extremists in his conference. On Friday morning, Steve Bannon, a former top White House adviser, said on his popular podcast that it was a “cardinal sin” to deny comments that were then aired on tape. In his quest to become speaker, McCarthy has long engaged in painful contortions to please the disparate factions of his conference — all of whose support he will need to become the most powerful Republican in Washington. That has often meant going out of his way not to antagonize Trump or his staunchest allies in Congress. He has dodged reporters in the hallways of the Capitol asking him about a Republican National Committee resolution that suggested that Jan. 6 was “legitimate political discourse” and censured members of his conference for participating in the House investigation of the attack. He has refrained from punishing far-right Republicans who have attended white supremacist rallies or released videos promoting violence against Democrats, instead saying that he has had stern, private conversations with them about their behavior. McCarthy’s office did not respond to requests for comment Friday about the tape. He is scheduled to travel Monday with a group of House Republicans to the southwestern border in Texas, where he is expected to hold a news conference and is likely to be pressed to publicly respond to the taped conversation. In Trump’s circles, McCarthy is already viewed with skepticism and little trust. The relationship between the two men, aides to Trump said, was cordial but not particularly close. The former president is closer with House members like Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, both of whom he speaks to regularly and views as loyalists. McCarthy, in contrast, often relies on his aide Brian Jack, a former White House political director, as an intermediary who has a solid relationship with the former president. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a critic of McCarthy’s who has pushed for Trump to become speaker, was the first to denounce his comments. “While I was rallying in Wyoming against Liz Cheney … Kevin McCarthy was defending Liz Cheney among House Republicans,” Gaetz posted on Twitter on Friday, noting that McCarthy “should have trusted my instincts, not your own.” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a vocal critic of Trump, tweeted that McCarthy should be “ashamed” of his lie. “Republicans, your leaders think you are dumb,” Kinzinger wrote. “Let’s be done with them.”  2022 The New York Times Company | |
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| 04-24-22 07:48am - 973 days | #12 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Russia unveils powerful new weapon named the Trump missile. The nuclear missile was named after Putin's great ally in his fight with Ukraine, Donald J. Trump. The missile is able to explode in different directions, with amazing accuracy, hitting foes of Russia with devastating effect. Donald J. Trump says he his honored by the missile's name, and considers Putin one of his closest friends. ------- ------- Russian officer: Missile to carry several hypersonic weapons Associated Press April 24, 2022, 6:59 AM MOSCOW (AP) — A new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile is capable of carrying several hypersonic weapons, a senior Russian military officer said Sunday. Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, the commander of the Russian military's Strategic Missile Forces, said in televised remarks that the new Sarmat ICBM is designed to carry several Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Sarmat was test-fired for the first time Wednesday from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its practice warheads have successfully reached mock targets on the Kura firing range on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. The test launch came amid soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over the Russian military action in Ukraine and underlines the Kremlin’s emphasis on the country’s nuclear forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the Sarmat launch as a major achievement, claiming that the new missile has no foreign equivalent and is capable of penetrating any prospective missile defense. “This really unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure Russia’s security from external threats and make those, who in the heat of frantic aggressive rhetoric try to threaten our country, think twice,” Putin said Wednesday. The Sarmat is a heavy missile that has been under development for several years to replace the Soviet-made Voyevoda, which was code-named Satan by the West and forms the core of Russia’s nuclear deterrent. The military has said that the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound and making sharp maneuvers on its way to target to dodge the enemy’s missile shield. In anticipation of the deployment of the Sarmat, the new hypersonic vehicle has been fitted to the existing Soviet-built ICBMs, and the first unit armed with the Avangard entered duty in December 2019. The director and the designer-in-chief of the Makeyev missile-maker that developed the Sarmat, Vladimir Degtyar, said in televised remarks that its range allows it to fly along any trajectory across north or south poles to hit any target around the world. | |
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| 04-24-22 10:02am - 973 days | #13 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Democrats tremble when Donald Trump appears. The Democrats are cowards, who refuse to worship Donald Trump, God's appointed ambassador on Earth. God selected Trump Himself, and that's why Trump was made President of the Untied States of Trumperland. But Democrats from Hell, the region down below where all sinners go, will go back down after Trump returns to the White House. Democrats are cowards. They hid under desks when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. Republicans, on the other hand, welcomed the peaceful supporters of Trump, calling them patriots who were fighting a rigged election, and that Biden would only become president over the dead bodies of all loyal Republicans. God save the Republic! God save the Republican party! -------- -------- Warren: 'Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor' Yahoo News Colin Campbell April 24, 2022, 7:49 AM Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had tough words on Sunday for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is in hot water after the release of new audio of him suggesting that then-President Donald Trump should resign after the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol. "Kevin McCarthy is a liar and a traitor," Warren said on CNN's "State of the Union." Warren continued: "This is outrageous. And that is really the illness that pervades the Republican leadership right now. They say one thing to the American public and something else in private." McCarthy and his office initially denied a New York Times report that he had vented about Trump after Jan. 6, when a mob of the president's supporters assaulted the Capitol in an attempt to stop then-President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College certification. “I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy told a group of GOP leaders, according to the Times. McCarthy called the report “totally false and wrong,” and his spokesman said the lawmaker “never said he’d call Trump to say he should resign.” But then the Times released audio of McCarthy saying exactly that: In a Jan. 10 recording, McCarthy says he would tell Trump that the House would impeach him and "it would be my recommendation you should resign." In a Jan. 11 recording, McCarthy said Trump acknowledged partial responsibility for the attack on Congress, which followed a Washington, D.C., rally in which the then president falsely claimed that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that his supporters should "fight like hell." “I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened?” McCarthy says on the tape. ”Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and he’d need to acknowledge that.” ANAHEIM, CA - APRIL 23: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader in the United States House of Representatives speaks at the California Republican Party convention at Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, CA on April 23, 2022 in Anaheim, CA. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) McCarthy hopes to be House speaker if Republicans take the House in the November midterm elections, and he almost surely would need Trump's support to corral the GOP caucus behind him. Accordingly, he hurried to contain the damage with Trump after the recordings were released. The Associated Press reported that, in the aftermath of the Times reports, McCarthy had a “positive” Thursday phone call with Trump, who told the GOP leader: “I’m not mad at you.” In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Trump did claim it was "false" that he accepted some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack. “He made a call. I heard the call. I didn’t like the call," Trump told the Journal of the audio recordings. But Trump said it was a "compliment" that McCarthy and other GOP leaders who criticized him after Jan. 6 later said that they would still support him. “They realized they were wrong and supported me,” Trump said. Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, argued Sunday that McCarthy's flip-flop shows a broader trend among Republicans in Congress. "They understand that it is wrong, what happened, an attempt to overthrow our government," said Warren, whose interview was mostly focused on arguing that her party should pass bold economic legislation before the November elections. "Shame on Kevin McCarthy," Warren added. The House continues to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, with a timetable that is also under pressure by the November elections that could see Republicans take Congress and quash the probe. In a Friday night court filing, the House committee investigating the attack alleged that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was warned that the Jan. 6 rally could turn violent, but pushed forward with it anyway. | |
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| 04-25-22 05:05am - 972 days | #14 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Meet the real topgun pilots: All skill. Zero special effects. Note: only stunt doubles can fly these planes. Do not attempt to duplicate the moves the movies show in real life. Flying can be hazardous to your health. Donald J. Trump, the fightenest President of the Untied States, will put on an aerial show this weekend. He will shoot down Russian F-666 and F-69 Stratospheric Supersonic Fighters in a daring display of skill and courage. Watch Trump avenge the stolen election that kept him out of the White House. Vote for Trump, and make America Free, White, and the Land of the Brave! Donate to Trump's legal team, which is fighting to keep Trump out of jail. Remember, the price of freedom is built on the blood, sweat and tears of patriots. | |
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| 04-25-22 10:15am - 972 days | #15 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Hold the presses. Stop the world. A New York judge has held Donald J. Trump in contempt. How can Trump, a God-fearing man, be held in contempt? Read the article, and decide whether you want to secede from the Union of Untied States in defense of Trump. ----- ----- New York judge holds Trump in contempt for failing to comply with subpoena Reuters Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld April 25, 2022, 8:57 AM FILE PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks in Sarasota By Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld (Reuters) - A New York judge on Monday held former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for not producing documents subpoenaed in the state attorney general's civil probe of his business practices, and ordered Trump to be fined $10,000 per day until he complies. Trump lost a bid to quash a subpoena from state Attorney General Letitia James, then failed to produce all the documents by a court-ordered March 3 deadline, later extended to March 31 at his lawyers' request. Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that a contempt finding was appropriate because of what the judge called "repeated failures" to hand over materials and that it was not clear Trump had conducted a complete search for responsive documents. "Mr. Trump … I know you take your business seriously, and I take mine seriously. I hereby hold you in civil contempt," the judge said, although Trump himself was not in the courtroom. James is investigating whether the Trump Organization, the former president's New York City-based family company, misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax deductions. James has said her probe had found "significant evidence" suggesting that for more than a decade the company's financial statements "relied on misleading asset valuations and other misrepresentations to secure economic benefits." The attorney general has questioned how the Trump Organization valued the Trump brand, as well as properties including golf clubs in New York and Scotland and Trump's own penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan's Trump Tower. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump and the company, said at the hearing that James' investigation was a "fishing expedition" and that the Trump Organization was "right on schedule" with its production of documents. "This is a political crusade," Habba said. "The attorney general's investigation has seemingly become aimless." Trump, a Republican, denies wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated. James is a Democrat. (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller) | |
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| 04-25-22 10:21am - 972 days | #16 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans attacking Democrats that are soft on crime. And Republicans are attacking Republicans that are soft on crime. Vote for Trump, who will make America great again. And donate to the fund that will pay Trump's lawyers for civil and criminal charges. ----- ----- 'Soft on crime' attacks target Republicans who favor changes Associated Press SARA BURNETT and SEAN MURPHY April 25, 2022, 7:39 AM OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — With violent crime increasing in many parts of the U.S., Republicans see a winning strategy in portraying Democrats as soft on crime ahead of this year's elections. In ads, campaign appearances and interviews, the GOP has ripped liberal policies and blamed Democratic lawmakers from the White House to city councils for the violence. But in Oklahoma, where Gov. Kevin Stitt is being targeted for mass commutations and a crime that involved cannibalism, the attacks are different: Stitt is a Republican. In one ad, a woman's voice says Stitt commuted the prison sentence of a man who later "brutally murdered his neighbor, then tried to feed her organs to his family." The ad, paid for by a group called Conservative Voice of America, concludes, “Oklahomans deserve a governor who cracks down on violent criminals, not one who lets them go.” Democrats have borne the brunt of the political blame for the increase in homicides and other violent crime in recent years. In some cases that's meant backpedaling on major criminal justice overhauls or insisting they don't want to defund police departments, as some activists have advocated. But now the attacks on some fellow Republicans are intensifying a split within the GOP between hard-liners and those conservatives who have shifted to support alternatives to prisons, largely as a way to save money. Groups that advocate various types of criminal justice reform worry the attacks could jeopardize meaningful changes that have occurred, many in heavily Republican states, such as Oklahoma, which has one of the highest incarceration rates, and Texas. "We had been seeing sort of growing bipartisan consensus on reforms," said Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. But that's gotten tougher because of rising crime and politics. “There’s still some of those old holdouts who just are ‘lock them up, throw away the key’ types," Ring said. "They’ve always been there, and I think that they have used the increase in crime to argue for a return to that posture by the party.” Brett Tolman, executive director of the conservative criminal justice advocacy group Right on Crime, said “the accusation of being weak on crime gets thrown around very quickly," causing “a lot of hesitation" in Congress. The former U.S. attorney said he now has to work with people mostly behind the scenes. Republicans who support the changes say they can reduce crime as well as costs to taxpayers. When Stitt approved the 2019 mass commutation of more than 450 inmates in a single day, he said the release would save Oklahoma an estimated $11.9 million over the cost of keeping them behind bars. The commutations primarily benefited those convicted of drug possession or low-level property crimes. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, says his state saved billions of dollars by investing in alternative sentencing and closing prisons. He's now defending Stitt, who's facing an avalanche of attack ads as he seeks a second term as Oklahoma governor. “I see the Texas reforms have proven tough on crime but soft on the taxpayer, as any conservative policy should be,” Perry wrote in a newspaper column defending Stitt. The attack ads targeting Stitt were paid for by dark money groups, which don't have to make their donors public. They criticize Stitt for signing off on the parole of a man now accused of three killings, including those of a 4-year-old girl and a neighbor whose heart he cut out and tried to feed to relatives, according to authorities. Donelle Harder, a spokesperson for Stitt’s reelection campaign, said it’s not clear who is funding the groups. “The undisclosed, special interest groups are not conservatives, and they are not being honest about their intentions,” Harder said. “Gov. Stitt’s commitment to lead as a conservative political outsider is clearly upsetting a small few.” Trebor Worthen, a GOP political consultant who is running one of the dark money groups, Sooner State Leadership PAC, said it is dedicated to public safety and has raised $10 million. Worthen declined to identify specific donors. “We are funded by business and community leaders who care deeply about our future and wish to exercise their First Amendment rights to advocate for policy changes that Oklahoma needs and deserves," Worthen said. The issue also has surfaced in the GOP primary for governor in Nevada. Former Sen. Dean Heller has criticized Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, saying he wants to defund the police. Lombardo told The Associated Press and other media outlets that he has no problem with his department losing funding if the money is used in another area that would benefit law enforcement. “Who goes on NPR and says they want to defund the police?” Heller told a Nevada TV station during an interview, comparing Lombardo with progressive Democrats who often draw conservative ire, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “AOC, the Squad, and Sheriff Lombardo. They're the ones that say that.” In Illinois, Democrats who control state government hurriedly worked this spring to provide more funding to law enforcement after passing a major criminal justice overhaul last year that set strict standards for police behavior and eliminated cash bail beginning next year. Republicans have blasted the criminal justice legislation. Among the most vocal critics is GOP candidate for governor Richard Irvin, a former prosecutor and defense attorney who is now mayor of Aurora, a Chicago suburb. Irvin, who faces several Republicans in the GOP primary, often touts his prosecutorial background as he blasts Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The Democratic Governors Association and Irvin's GOP rivals have questioned his tough-on-crime credentials, however. In an ad, the DGA criticized Irvin's work as a defense attorney, and fellow Republicans have attacked Irvin, who is Black, for expressing support for Black Lives Matter. A spokesperson for Irvin dismissed the attacks. Eleni Desmertzis said Pritzker is “running scared" and facing "a former criminal prosecutor, tough-on-crime-mayor and strong supporter of law enforcement who has proven he’s not afraid to stand up for all lives in Illinois.” ___ Burnett reported from Chicago. | |
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| 04-25-22 04:17pm - 972 days | #17 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Trump: man of action. Man of many words. Trump insists he has no plans to rejoin Twitter. Twitter is old news. Old structure. Trump has embraced the newest, bestest, fairest platform to reach out to his supporters: Trump will stay on TRUTH. So Twitter will be in danger of fading away. No longer relevant. And Elon Musk, who is apparently buying Twitter, will be left empty-handed, without the support of Trump. Make America great again. Vote for Trump. And make America white. Where White Lives Matter. ---- ---- Trump insists he has no plans to rejoin Twitter even if Elon Musk reinstates his account Yahoo News Dylan Stableford April 25, 2022, 4:18 PM Former President Donald Trump said Monday he would have no interest in rejoining Twitter even if his account were reinstated by Elon Musk, insisting that he plans instead to stick with his fledgling social media network, Truth Social. “I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News in a statement that was issued shortly before Musk’s $44 billion buyout offer for Twitter was accepted unanimously by the company’s board. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH,” Trump’s statement read. Musk, the outspoken billionaire chief executive of Tesla, has said he plans to take Twitter private and minimize the policing of its content. Trump was permanently suspended by Twitter, as well as by Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, for what the companies described as his role in inciting violence during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. His Twitter account, which had more than 88 million followers, was initially suspended for 12 hours during the riot after he condemned then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was in the process of certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Chris Seward/AP, Mike Blake/Reuters) “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them, we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a tweet announcing the permanent ban. After leaving office, Trump announced plans to create his own social media platform, Truth Social, which saw a turbulent launch last month. Trump himself is not yet on the platform, which has struggled to attract users. The former president told Fox that he will formally join “over the next seven days, as planned.” As a candidate, Trump used Twitter as a cudgel to help propel him to the presidency. Shortly after his victory in the 2016 presidential election, he said he wasn’t sure how much he’d use Twitter once he got to the White House. “I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all,” Trump told the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” days after the 2016 election. But his use of Twitter only seemed to intensify while in office, with Trump using the social media platform to spar with critics, float conspiracies and provoke foreign adversaries. | |
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| 04-25-22 04:33pm - 972 days | #18 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Donald Trump is a man with a heart of gold. He keeps saying the investigations into his business empire is a witch hunt. That he is innocent of any crimes. However, if the Republicans are able to win Congress, Republicans will go after Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. This is because Republicans want to keep America pure, and free of crime. If Hunter Biden is a criminal, he deserves to be in jail. Unlike Donald Trump: Trump was President, therefore he is above the law. Any charges against Trump will be dismissed, because Trump will re-take the White House and put all Democrats and evil people in jail, where they belong. And if that includes Joe Biden, or any of Joe Biden's relatives, well, with a heavy heart, Donald Trump will honor his pledge of office, and put Joe Biden in prison. ----- ----- Hunter Biden is prime target if Republicans win Congress Associated Press NOMAAN MERCHANT April 25, 2022, 8:26 AM WASHINGTON (AP) — Intelligence officials had gathered to brief select members of Congress on future threats to U.S. elections when a key lawmaker in the room, No. 3 House Republican Elise Stefanik of New York, tried to move the discussion to a new topic: Hunter Biden’s laptop. Stefanik, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, asked the officials during the April 1 briefing whether they had any evidence of Russian involvement in the release of Biden’s laptop to the news media in the fall of 2020 — a possibility floated by high-ranking former government officials in the weeks before the presidential election. Intelligence officials told Stefanik the question would be better answered by law enforcement. Stefanik’s query, shared with The Associated Press by a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified meeting, reflects a widespread sentiment in the GOP that questions about the financial dealings of President Biden’s son remain unanswered. And they say they intend to do something about it. As Republicans prepare for a possible return to power amid rising hopes of winning the House and the Senate in the November elections, they are laying the groundwork to make Hunter Biden and his business dealings a central target of their investigative and oversight efforts. Republican lawmakers and staff have discussed analyzing specific messages and financial transactions found on the laptop and have also discussed issuing congressional subpoenas to foreign entities involved in paying Hunter Biden, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The conversations have been in the early stages but have included talks of bringing on Republican lawyers and former Justice Department officials to help lead the investigations, the people said. The White House in turn is preparing to defend the Democratic president from any allegations of wrongdoing and make the case that Republicans are driven by opportunism. Democrats are likely to point out how Republicans did not seek investigations into President Donald Trump's own business pursuits in Russia and China or into the foreign dealings of his children and son-in-law while they held key campaign or White House roles. It all raises the possibility of a messy, politically explosive showdown between a GOP-controlled Congress and the White House, one that could delve deeply into the affairs of the president’s family and shape the contours of the 2024 race for the White House. Hunter Biden’s taxes and foreign business work are already under federal investigation, with a grand jury in Delaware hearing testimony in recent months. While he never held a position on the presidential campaign or in the White House, Hunter Biden's membership on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and his efforts to strike deals in China have long raised questions about whether he traded on his father’s public service, including reported references in his emails to the “big guy.” President Biden has said he's never spoken to his son about his foreign business. And there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president in any way. The White House declined to comment, and a lawyer for Hunter Biden did not respond to an email. Republican leaders see Hunter Biden as a unifying force that can bring together different factions of the GOP and potentially satiate those calling for more dramatic action. Some members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus have said the first order of business for a Republican majority should be an impeachment trial of Joe Biden in retaliation for the two impeachments of Trump. There’s also increasing discussion among Republicans about urging the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel, said people familiar with the matter. “Hunter Biden’s fair game because I believe Hunter Biden is a national security risk,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who is in line to take over the House Oversight Committee if Republicans win the House. “Hopefully, when I get the gavel, we’ll take it a step further.” In preparation, Comer's oversight staff has already begun to make document requests and archived information related to the president’s son. The New York Post first reported in October 2020 that it had received from Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, a copy of a hard drive of a laptop that Hunter Biden had dropped off 18 months earlier at a Delaware computer repair shop and never retrieved. The story was greeted with skepticism due to questions about the laptop's origins, including Giuliani's involvement, and because top officials in the Trump administration had already warned that Russia was working to denigrate Joe Biden ahead of the November election. The Kremlin had also interfered in the 2016 race by hacking Democratic emails that were subsequently leaked. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee now want to probe the origins of a widely shared letter from 50 former intelligence officials released a week after the New York Post story. The letter claimed the laptop carried "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and suggested that “the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue.” Joe Biden in the second presidential debate, responding to Trump’s reference to the “laptop from hell,” said “there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant.” That statement went further than the letter, though it was immediately and widely reported as having labeled the laptop as disinformation. Trump and many Republicans accused Biden of invoking Russia to avoid scrutiny about his son. No evidence has emerged since of any Russian connections to the laptop or the emails. A declassified U.S. intelligence assessment of the 2020 election alleged that Russian leader Vladimir Putin authorized multiple efforts in support of Trump. Russian state media amplified “disparaging content” about Biden “including stories centered on his son,” the assessment said, which also alleges Putin had “purview” over the activities of a Ukrainian lawmaker who met with Giuliani. Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, called allegations that the Russians were behind the laptop “absurd.” Stefanik in a statement said “any alleged attempt by the intelligence agencies or intelligence community leadership to portray the facts surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop as misinformation needs to be investigated and prosecuted.” Meanwhile, GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who in 2020 issued a report on Hunter Biden and his work on behalf of Ukraine gas company Burisma, recently made a presentation on the Senate floor laying out allegations they say the media have ignored but the Justice Department and Congress need to investigate. “The Biden administration has been totally unresponsive to our oversight requests,” Grassley said. For now, the Biden administration and many top Democrats are not commenting publicly on Hunter Biden. But the White House has already reassigned communications staff to prepare to respond to GOP investigations of Hunter Biden and other likely targets, including the origins of the coronavirus and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Democrats are expected to argue that Hunter Biden is ultimately a distraction to most voters concerned about domestic issues. The current House Oversight chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, previewed that argument in a statement responding to Comer, her Republican counterpart. Said Maloney: "I’d hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would be more focused on delivering for the American people than on phony outrage.” | |
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| 04-25-22 04:52pm - 972 days | #19 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
California man arrested for threats against a dictionary maker. A man who didn't like the way Merriam-Webster defined the word "female" was arrested for making threats against the dictionary maker. This is not right. People have the right of free speech. Donald Trump himself said 'I Could ... Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn't Lose Any Voters'. So why are the FBI going after this California man? Why didn't they go after Trump? Is Trump above the law? Yes, as far as the FBI is concerned, Trump is above the law. The FBI is corrupt. Clean the swamp in Washington. Clean out the FBI. Put in the CIA. ----- ----- Calif. man arrested, charged with threats against Merriam-Webster for gender-inclusive definitions NBC Universal Kalhan Rosenblatt April 24, 2022, 6:30 AM A California man was arrested and charged with making threats against Merriam-Webster Inc. for the company's inclusive language around gender, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, was arrested and charged with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence, according to a press release. He has been released ahead of a court date on Friday. Hanson is accused of leaving threatening comments on Merriam-Webster's website, as well as sending threatening messages via the company's "contact us" feature. The comments left by Hanson were made in October, authorities said. On Oct. 2, he used the username "@anonYmous" to comment on Merriam-Webster's dictionary entry for the term "female," authorities said. “It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot," he allegedly wrote. It is alleged that in a message sent to Merriam-Webster via the "contact us" function, Hanson wrote the company had altered "the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality." "Your headquarters should be shot up and bombed. ... You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive," he allegedly wrote. He later allegedly sent another threatening message, saying he would “bomb your offices for lying.” In addition to the word "female," messages to the company were also sent in relation to its entries for “girl” and “woman.” Because of the threats, Merriam-Webster shut down its Springfield, Massachusetts, and New York City offices for five business days. Hanson could face up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. NBC News was not immediately able to contact Hanson for comment. The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, said that everyone has the right to their opinions but that Hanson made repeated threats against the company, which is not a protected right. "We are always going to pursue individuals who try to intimidate and isolate members of our community by inciting violent, hateful acts," Bonavolonta said in a statement. | |
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| 04-26-22 05:13pm - 971 days | #20 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans believe in free speech and the right to be armed. That is why a US congressman, Madison Cawthorn, was carrying a loaded 9mm gun when he tried to board an airplane. But not to worry: as a congressman, he was issued a citation, instead of being arrested. It's important to be important: you get into less problems that way. Also, this is the second time he has been stopped with a firearm. I guess he was thinking that as a congressman, he could bypass airport security. Or maybe he thought that if there was any trouble, he could pull out his gun and solve the trouble, because he is a congress, and they are supposed to be helpful. Also, as a congressman, Madison Cawthorn believes he has the right to drive a car with a revoked license. As a congressman, since he is important, he is facing two speeding citations. Congressman need to speed to save time, so those cops should have let him slide by. Vote for Trump, As president, Trump will keep all Republicans in line. ----- ----- Rep. Madison Cawthorn cited for having a gun at Charlotte airport NBC Universal Rebecca Shabad and Zoë Richards and Scott Wong April 26, 2022, 2:53 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. WASHINGTON — Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., was cited Tuesday for having a loaded 9mm handgun at a TSA checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, the second time he has been stopped with a firearm at an airport since taking office last year. The incident occurred just before 9 a.m., when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said it was notified that Transportation Security Administration agents had found a firearm, ammunition and a magazine in Cawthorn's belongings at a security checkpoint, according to a police report. Cawthorn was issued a citation in lieu of an arrest for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property, a misdemeanor charge. The airport is owned and operated by the City of Charlotte and has several postings stating “no dangerous weapons allowed,” police said in their report. They added in a statement that Cawthorn was cooperative and told officers that the gun belonged to him. A TSA spokesperson said the penalty for violating rules surrounding firearms is up to $13,900. It was not immediately clear if the agency will pursue a fine against Cawthorn. The spokesperson told NBC News that while it doesn't discuss the details of each case, "in almost every incident we issue one," with a review and potential penalty likely in the coming weeks. Authorities last year stopped Cawthorn from carrying a loaded 9mm handgun onto a flight out of Asheville, North Carolina. The TSA says civil penalties are often higher for "repeat violations." After Cawthorn was released Tuesday, officers took possession of the firearm, a standard procedure, police said. A citation instead of arrest in also normal procedure, the department said, "unless there are other associated felony charges or extenuating circumstances." NBC News has reached out to Cawthorn's office for comment. The misdemeanor charge is Cawthorn's second in the past two months. In March, he was charged with driving with a revoked license and faces two pending citations for speeding. He has a May 6 court date for the license charge, a misdemeanor. Cawthorn, 26, uses a wheelchair because he was seriously injured in a 2014 car accident while riding as a passenger in the car of a friend who fell asleep at the wheel, according to his 2019 federal court filing against the auto insurance company. The North Carolina Republican recently caused an uproar when he claimed on a podcast that his congressional colleagues were using drugs and inviting him to sex parties. On the podcast, Cawthorn discussed “the sexual perversion that goes on in Washington” and said some of his older colleagues had invited him to a “sexual get-together.” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on Tuesday questioned Cawthorn's maturity after his recent run-ins with the law. "Speeding tickets have happened and driving without a license has happened," Tillis said when asked about Cawthorn's past encounters with law enforcement. "These things just speak to judgement. Judgement or maturity." Last month, Tillis endorsed Cawthorn’s primary challenger, state Sen. Chuck Edwards. "We’ve got to have somebody who’s demonstrating judgment and temperament and a willingness to work together for the betterment of North Carolinians," Tillis said Tuesday, adding that right now Cawthorn is "not at that table." | |
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| 04-26-22 05:19pm - 971 days | #21 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
“Marjorie Taylor Greene testified under oath that she could not remember telling Trump or his chief of staff to declare martial law to try to keep Trump in power, but her own texts reveal that she did exactly that,” Fein said in a statement. “Anyone who ‘can’t remember’ whether they urged the White House Chief of Staff to talk to the President of the United States about declaring martial law can’t be trusted when they claim they ‘can’t remember’ their own engagement in insurrection,” he added. --------- --------- Text messages from Greene put new focus on martial law testimony NBC Universal Zoë Richards and Charlie Gile and Blayne Alexander April 26, 2022, 6:14 AM New text messages from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene surrounding the 2020 election are drawing attention to recent court testimony in which the Georgia Republican said she did not recall any involvement in efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in office. When asked during a hearing Friday if she had advocated for martial law to keep President Joe Biden from taking office, Greene said she could not recall. But a new tranche of text messages obtained by CNN shows Greene broached the idea with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Ron Fein, who is leading a legal challenge to Greene’s candidacy in Georgia over allegations she helped facilitate the Jan. 6 riot, told NBC News on Monday that the text messages undermine her credibility and testimony in the case. “Marjorie Taylor Greene testified under oath that she could not remember telling Trump or his chief of staff to declare martial law to try to keep Trump in power, but her own texts reveal that she did exactly that,” Fein said in a statement. “Anyone who ‘can’t remember’ whether they urged the White House Chief of Staff to talk to the President of the United States about declaring martial law can’t be trusted when they claim they ‘can’t remember’ their own engagement in insurrection,” he added. Greene's lawyer and office did not immediately return requests for comment. In a text message to Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, Greene told Meadows that some GOP lawmakers were saying Trump should call for martial law. “In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!” she wrote. NBC News has not been able to independently confirm all of the text communications, which appear to reveal attempts by the Trump White House and its allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that go well beyond what was previously known. Greene testified under oath for nearly four hours as a witness during Friday's hearing and was asked whether she had advocated for martial law prior to Biden’s inauguration. “I don’t recall. I don’t recall,” Greene said when pressed about conversations and social media posts surrounding the election and Jan. 6. Free Speech for People, an election and campaign finance reform organization led by Fein, filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of a group of Georgia voters aiming to remove Greene from the ballot due to her alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack. Attorneys on both sides in the case have until Thursday to submit final briefs to the court, meaning the new text messages might be cited by plaintiffs. The judge said he plans to finalize his recommendation “about a week later.” That recommendation will then go to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will decide whether Greene remains on the ballot for the state’s May 24 primary. | |
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| 04-26-22 05:24pm - 971 days | #22 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Before the Moskva, there was the Kursk: The sunken submarine that helped Putin consolidate power over Russia Yahoo News Alexander Nazaryan April 26, 2022, 2:00 AM WASHINGTON — Twenty-two years ago, a Russian nuclear submarine sank after being rocked by two explosions during a torpedo test launch gone awry. There were 118 sailors on board the Kursk; most of them died at once. But a few survived, sequestering in a rear compartment that had not been destroyed. For longtime observers of Vladimir Putin’s rise, it was impossible not to think of the Kursk when the Moskva, the flagship missile cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet, sank on April 14. The two maritime disasters serve as bookends of sorts for the two decades of Russia under Putin’s rule. The first took place shortly after he assumed the presidency, when dreams of a democratic Russia were battered but not yet dead. The second, the victim of his invasion of Ukraine, comes at a time when Russia is an international pariah and Putin faces the deepest crisis of his reign. “Putin’s presidency started with Kursk; here’s to it ending with Moskva,” wrote Ivar Dale, a Norwegian expert in Russian affairs, on Twitter. Russian supporters wave flags as they welcome missile cruiser Moskva. Russian supporters welcome the missile cruiser Moskva, a flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, in 2008. (Vasily Batanov/AFP via Getty Images) The Kursk taught Putin as much as it taught Russia, giving the young and inexperienced president a tragically clear view of what he had inherited — and of what it would take to maintain power in a crumbling empire that for 10 years had been careening between freedom and chaos. “Everything that has long since been typical of Putin was demonstrated after the sinking of the Kursk,” investigative journalist David Satter, who was banned from Russia for his reporting on Putin’s rise to power, told Yahoo News. “The xenophobia, mendacity and casual assumption that the lives of people without power have no value.” Above all, the Kursk disaster taught Putin that a free press had no place in the new Russia, for it could only expose how little had changed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union — and how what had changed was mostly for the worse. There could be freedom or order in the new Russia, he decided, but there could not be both. “The entire process of undermining democracy in Russia, in many regards, began with this,” the attorney Boris Kuznetsov, who represented some of the Kursk families and later had to flee Russia, said in 2015. Until the catastrophe, Russia had been on a trajectory encouraged by the West, which saw value in Russia as an unexplored market yearning for investment. The optimism persisted well into the 1990s, even as it was becoming clear that disorder and revanchism were more persistent than Harvard-trained economists had supposed would be the case. The Russian submarine Kursk The Russian submarine Kursk at its base in Vidyayevo. (AFP via Getty Images) “Russia has a democracy — imperfect, perhaps, but not now seriously threatened — and a free press in which Moscovsky Komsomolets can print biting political cartoons on its front page and Izvestia amuses its readers nominating an oligarch of the year,” Lawrence Summers, then the deputy treasury secretary, said in early 1999, referencing two of Russia’s most famous Soviet-era newspapers. Of all the changes to come in the years that would follow, the decline of a free press would prove perhaps the most consequential. After the Kursk, Putin worked assiduously to muzzle the country’s independent media, a campaign that came to its natural conclusion when he invaded Ukraine earlier this year. As the Ukrainians held on in the face of February’s initial assault and pro-Kremlin media sought explanations of why the Russian tricolor wasn’t yet flying atop Kyiv’s spires, Putin moved to quickly shutter his country’s last remaining networks and newspapers, the few still interested in telling the unvarnished truth. “The Russian media is dead,” a local Russian journalist told Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Robert Mahoney last month. Putin was remarkably new to Moscow, and national politics, when the Kursk went down. He spent the last years of the Cold War as a midlevel KGB bureaucrat in East Germany. After the collapse of the USSR, he became the deputy mayor of his native St. Petersburg, only to lose that job when his reformist boss Anatoly Sobchak was defeated in a 1996 reelection contest. Later that year he went to Moscow, assigned to “manage” the transfer of formerly Soviet property assets. He ascended quickly from there to become prime minister in 1999 and president in 2000 — all without ever having won a single election. Russian President Vladimir Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin at a recent concert in Moscow marking the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) Putin had not served in the military, but the poor condition of the armed forces was no secret. President Boris Yeltsin had cut the military budget to only 5% of what it had been during the last year of the Soviet Union, when Red Square parades — troops, rocket launchers, tanks — disguised profound social ills but nevertheless intimidated the rest of the world with their sheer size. “Not since June 1941 has the Russian military stood as perilously close to ruin as it does now,” a military analyst for the United States wrote in 1994. Yeltsin had come to power as a reformer, but his liberalizing project made a few oligarchs rich while impoverishing ordinary Russians and turning a superpower into a laughingstock. Long a heavy drinker, Yeltsin was barely functioning by the time he appointed Putin his prime minister and successor. Consolidating control over the Kremlin even while Yeltsin technically remained his superior, Putin oversaw Russia’s response to a series of apartment bombings in 1999 that many experts believe were carried out by Moscow’s own security services, perhaps at Putin’s own direction. The attacks were used to justify an invasion of Chechnya, a small, majority-Muslim province that had tried to break away from Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union a decade before. Afraid that other autonomous republics would follow suit, Yeltsin invaded Chechnya in 1994, expecting an easy victory. But the Chechen rebels exploited Russian military disorganization and corruption, much as Ukrainian fighters have in recent weeks. After a disastrous attempt to take the Chechen capital city of Grozny — allegedly ordered during a bout of drinking — Russia withdrew in 1996, having effectively been defeated. A Chechen woman passes by a tank of Russian federal troops on the main street of a village south of Grozny A Chechen woman near a tank manned by Russian troops on the street of a village south of Grozny, February 2000. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Putin was determined to win back Chechnya, and allowed his generals to do whatever they needed to do as long as they emerged victorious. “Mr. Putin is benefiting from the licensed brutality in Chechnya,” the Guardian noted in February 1999, quoting a top Russian commander’s unambiguous warning of mutiny to the Kremlin: “Russia’s officer corps just can’t take another slap in the face. There are even some who think that such a turn of events would put Russia on the brink of civil war.” Putin sanctioned the heavy bombing of Grozny without regard for civilian casualties. On March 20, 2000, as the then-acting president was about to face his first election, Putin landed in a fighter jet in Grozny to proclaim victory. Yeltsin had failed to take Grozny in two years. Putin did it in less than six months. On August 10 of that year, the Russian navy commenced exercises in the Barents Sea, a body of water south of the Arctic Ocean. The exercises, called Summer-X, involved more than 30 craft, including four submarines and the flagship of the storied Northern Fleet, Pyotr Velkhi (Peter the Great). Western intelligence services watched Summer-X with “high anticipation,” journalist Ramsey Flynn wrote, as “a key test of an emerging do-more-with-less defense philosophy of Russia’s little-known new leader.” The Kursk went down shortly before noon on Aug. 12, likely because of a hydrogen peroxide leak during the launch of a test torpedo that caused a pair of explosions. After the second, much larger explosion, it came to rest in about 350 feet of water. A Russian woman adjusts a wreath at a monument in Moscow to those who died in the Kursk submarine disaster A Russian woman adjusts a wreath at a monument in Moscow to those who died in the Kursk submarine disaster. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images) Western intelligence services had picked up strange seismic activity that they realized was something gone wrong in the Summer-X exercises. They quickly reached out to their Russian counterparts, only to be rebuffed. The Northern Fleet’s confidence was deeply misguided. “The Russians did not have the ability to reach the sub to conduct any type of rescue/extraction operations,” a subsequent U.S. intelligence report concluded. That same report said it took the Northern Fleet three-and-a-half hours to realize that something had happened to the Kursk. Vyacheslav Popov, the top Russian admiral aboard the Pyotr Velkhi, seemed to show little concern for the submarine’s fate, even as it was becoming increasingly clear that something had gone wrong. If a Western military would have responded with an all-hands-on-deck rescue, the Russian armed forces had never recovered from the trauma of Stalin’s brutal purges of the officer ranks during the 1930s. Secrecy and silence had been crucial to survival in that era — and they were still, even in a supposedly new age of freedom. | |
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| 04-26-22 05:26pm - 971 days | #23 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
ARTICLE CONTINUES: “Confronted with what seemed like evidence of a huge disaster, Popov did what a long line of senior officers and politicians had done before and after him. He did nothing,” the historian Peter Truscott wrote in his book about the Kursk. The Northern Fleet did not declare an emergency until that evening, nearly 12 hours after the Kursk had gone missing. Putin had left for Sochi, the Black Sea resort beloved by his Soviet predecessors, on the 12th. Only the next morning did his defense minister call with the bad news. Only on the 14th did the Northern Fleet admit that something had gone wrong on the Kursk, grossly underplaying the severity of the crisis and refusing to say who was on board. By then, dark rumors were already circulating among submariners’ families. A priest leads a service during a memorial ceremony for those who died in the Kursk submarine disaster A priest leads a service for those who died in the Kursk submarine disaster on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, Aug. 12, 2020. (Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images) It would take days for Russian authorities to admit that the submarine had sunk, and that virtually nothing was known about any survivors, in large part because initial Russian rescue attempts had been so hapless. Putin remained in Sochi, while the press in Moscow assailed him for his inattention to the crisis. “He was in a stupor,” a Kremlin source would tell the journalist Catherine Belton. “He didn’t know how to deal with it, and therefore he avoided dealing with it.” Norway and the U.K. offered their own deep-sea experts and equipment, as did the United States. Putin and his admirals refused their offers, not wanting to admit how inferior their own rescue equipment was. They also held on to Soviet-era notions of secrecy, fearing that if Western divers were allowed access to the Kursk, they would steal its military secrets. At the same time, grief and rage scored Russian media. “The reputation of the Russian leadership is lying on the bottom of the Barents Sea,” read a headline in one Moscow newspaper. “Lies and fear are the features of Russian authority. Russia has been persecuting and punishing its people for so long that by now it has simply forgotten how to save their lives,” said the newspaper Izvestia, which had been a reliable Kremlin mouthpiece during the Soviet years. “All this reminds us of Chernobyl,” the journalist Zinaida Lobanovna wrote in Komsomolskaya Pravda, referencing the 1986 nuclear disaster that was partly responsible for the Soviet Union’s downfall. The destroyed fourth power block of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl a few days after one of its a reactors blew up The destroyed fourth power block of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl a few days after one of its a reactors blew up on April 26, 1986. It is considered the worst nuclear accident in history. (Vladimir Repik/AFP via Getty Images) Putin recognized that more than military incompetence or public anger, it was negative coverage that could doom his young presidency. “President Putin learned to appreciate the media’s power to shape public opinion and that the stinging criticism he received could only be checked by controlling the press,” military scholar Zoltan Barany has written. By the time Putin arrived at the Kursk base on the remote Kola Peninsula, on August 20, it had already been more than a week since the Kursk sank. He didn’t have any new explanations, but he did have a new story — and new scapegoats. “One witness at the closed meeting said Mr. Putin referred three times to the media’s treatment of the crisis, and raged at tycoons who had allegedly robbed the nation and were now manipulating public opinion,” went one report from the town hall, which was closed to the press but made the newspapers anyway. “The government had not been guilty of deceit and incompetence during the crisis, Mr. Putin told the families. The media had created such an impression.” Later, Putin preposterously fumed that the grieving mothers he encountered were actually local prostitutes hired by the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who had been close to Yeltsin and who ran the immensely influential ORT television network. Berezovsky was one of the two oligarchs Putin blamed for how the Kursk was covered. The other was Vladimir Gusinsky, who ran the Media-Most empire. “They stole money, they bought the media and they’re manipulating public opinion,” Putin said of the two oligarchs, in a message intended less for the grieving families than for the power elites hundreds of miles away in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Many of the other oligarchs were also Jews; they had suddenly come to power in a country with a long history of antisemitism. Fugitive Russian media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky, center Fugitive Russian media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky, center, leaves leaves Greece's largest penitentiary Korydallos prison on the outskirts of Athens, August 2003. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images) Some had an obvious interest in politics, like industrialist Mikhail Khodorkovsky; others only in media or industry. Their backgrounds or ambitions notwithstanding, they represented the excesses and possibilities of the Yeltsin era. That era was now coming to an end. Probably the single most arresting episode from the entire Kursk crisis was that of a grieving mother shouting at officials who kept offering explanations, apologies and assurances, each more obfuscatory than the next. “This is a disgrace!” the mother can be seen and heard shouting in surreptitiously recorded video, her cries overflowing with pain. As she continues to berate the Moscow minister before her, a woman approaches from behind, plunging a syringe full of sedatives into the mother’s back. “The incident was broadcast extensively yesterday, to the acute embarrassment of President Vladimir Putin's government,” a Guardian report noted. Several top military officials tried to resign, but Putin prevented them from doing so. “He was no longer entitled to seethe at the people who had destroyed Soviet military might and imperial pride,” the journalist Masha Gessen would write later. “By dint of becoming president, to a great number of his compatriots he had now become one of those people.” A little less than a month after the Kursk sank, Putin traveled to New York for his first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. While in New York, he sat for an interview with Larry King, then the host of a popular CNN news program. “Tell me,” King asked, “what happened with the submarine?” Russians have never forgotten the haunting, puzzling smile that crossed Putin’s face, or the two words he offered in response: “It sank.” Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Larry King Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Larry King before a taping of his show, Sept. 8, 2000. (via Reuters) The admission was as puzzling as it was frank. The “crumbling edifice of a former superpower” was now his to deal with, Gessen wrote, and there was a certain political audacity to admitting as much. Families of the Kursk victims received unusually generous compensation packages, angering some families of soldiers killed in Chechnya, as well as some soldiers still fighting there. “If you count the boys who died here, the entire nation should be mourning for a year without stopping. But no one cares for us, nor pays us honor when we die. The commanders think that it’s our job to die here," a 20-year-old sergeant said. At the same time, Putin moved quickly to reverse the freedoms of the Yeltsin years, which threatened to topple his embattled administration. Accountability and frankness could only take him so far. “A recurrence of self-censorship among Russian journalists is proving to be perhaps the most destructive consequence of the events of the past 12 months, and one that will be extremely difficult to overcome,” warned two Russia observers in a New York Times op-ed in January 2002. Two years later, the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya marked a dangerous new era for anyone in Russia who sought to expose the truth. The new mood allowed the Kremlin to control coverage of crises like the 2004 siege of a school in Beslan, as well as abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya and virtually unchecked corruption on the part of Moscow and St. Petersburg elites. Khodorkovsky, the outspoken oligarch, went to prison in 2005 on fabricated charges of financial malfeasance. Trying to expose the Kremlin’s own corruption, the tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky died after being abused in prison, where he’d be sent on charges as fictitious as those that had been used to convict Khodorkovsky. The grave of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Moscow The grave of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Moscow. (Andrey Smirnov/AFP via Getty Images) By the time Putin first invaded Ukraine in 2014, his control of the media was almost complete, feeding the Kremlin’s grievances and illusions to millions. And as Russia amassed troops on the Ukrainian border in 2021, Admiral Popov, now retired, resurfaced to claim that the Kursk had in fact been sunk by a NATO craft. That wasn’t true, and Russian authorities had always known as much. In fact, back in 2001, they had been frank — however fleetingly — in their assessment of their own official incompetence. But in 2022, things were different: There was no one around to correct the lie. | |
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| 04-26-22 05:39pm - 971 days | #24 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Joe Biden has a heart of gold. He is issuing pardons to convicted people. Is he considering offering a pardon to Donald Trump to cover any and all possible crimes that Trump may have committed? Biden and Trump are allies, because they have both held the position of President of the Untied States. So Biden could come to the rescue of Trump, and offer a free pardon to Trump. And Trump, if he reclaims the White House in the next presidential election, could, if he chose, grant a pardon to Joe Biden's son, who will soon be the target of a Republican witch hunt. ----- ----- Biden pardons former Secret Service agent and 2 others Associated Press AAMER MADHANI April 26, 2022, 4:33 AM WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has granted the first three pardons of his term, providing clemency to a Kennedy-era Secret Service agent convicted of federal bribery charges that he tried to sell a copy of an agency file and to two people who were convicted on drug-related charges but went on to become pillars in their communities. The Democratic president also commuted the sentences of 75 others for nonviolent, drug-related convictions. The White House announced the clemencies Tuesday as it launched a series of job training and reentry programs for those in prison or recently released. Many of those who received commutations have been serving their sentences on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several were serving lengthy sentences and would have received lesser terms had they been convicted today for the same offenses as a result of the 2018 bipartisan sentencing reform ushered into law by the Trump administration. “America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation,” Biden said in a statement announcing the clemencies. “Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer and stronger communities.” Those granted pardons are: — Abraham Bolden Sr., 86, the first Black Secret Service agent to serve on a presidential detail. In 1964, Bolden, who served on President John F. Kennedy's detail, faced federal bribery charges that he attempted to sell a copy of a Secret Service file. His first trial ended in a hung jury. Following his conviction in a second trial, key witnesses admitted lying at the prosecutor's request. Bolden, of Chicago, was denied a retrial and served several years in federal prison. Bolden has maintained his innocence and wrote a book in which he argued he was targeted for speaking out against racist and unprofessional behavior in the Secret Service. — Betty Jo Bogans, 51, was convicted in 1998 of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine in Texas after attempting to transport drugs for her boyfriend and his accomplice. Bogans, a single mother with no prior record, received a seven-year sentence. In the years since her release from prison, Bogans has held consistent employment, even while undergoing cancer treatment, and has raised a son. — Dexter Jackson , 52, of Athens, Georgia, was convicted in 2002 for using his pool hall to facilitate the trafficking of marijuana. Jackson pleaded guilty and acknowledged he allowed his business to be used by marijuana dealers. After Jackson was released from prison, he converted his business into a cellphone repair service that employs local high school students through a program that provides young adults with work experience. Jackson has built and renovated homes in his community, which has a shortage of affordable housing. Civil rights and criminal justice reform groups have pushed the White House to commute sentences and work harder to reduce disparities in the criminal justice system. Biden’s grants of clemency also come as the administration has faced congressional scrutiny over misconduct and the treatment of inmates in the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for inmates serving sentences of home confinement. Biden, as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped shepherd through the 1994 crime bill that many criminal justice experts say contributed to harsh sentences and mass incarceration of Black people. During his 2020 White House run, Biden vowed to reduce the number of people incarcerated in the U.S. and called for nonviolent drug offenders to be diverted to drug courts and treatment. He also has pushed for better training for law enforcement and called for criminal justice system changes to address disparities that have led to minorities and the poor making up a disproportionate share of the nation's incarcerated population. Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, granted 143 pardons and clemency to 237 during his four years in office. Trump sought the advice of prison reform advocate Alice Johnson, a Black woman whose life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense he commuted in 2018. He was also lobbied by celebrity Kim Kardashian as well as advisers inside the White House, including daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as he weighed applications for clemency. The Republican used his pardon authority to help several political friends and allies, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Republican operative Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of Ivanka Trump. Among Trump's final acts as president was pardoning his former chief strategist Steve Bannon and Al Pirro, the husband of Fox News host and Trump ally Jeanine Pirro. Prosecutors alleged that Bannon, who had yet to stand trial when he was pardoned, had duped thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. Instead, Bannon allegedly diverted more than $1 million, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself. Pirro was convicted in 2000 on tax charges. With the slate of pardons and commutations announced Tuesday, Biden has issued more grants of clemency than any of the previous five presidents at this point in their terms, according to the White House. In addition to the grants of clemency, Biden announced several new initiatives that are meant to help formerly incarcerated people gain employment — an issue that his administration is driving home as key to lowering crime rates and preventing recidivism. The Labor Department is directing $140 million toward programs that offer job training, pre-apprenticeship programs, digital literacy training and pre-release and post-release career counseling and more for youth and incarcerated adults. The $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress last year includes a trio of grant programs that the administration says promote hiring of formerly incarcerated individuals. And the Labor and Justice Departments announced on Tuesday a collaborative plan to provide $145 million over the next year on job skills training as well as individualized employment and reentry plans for people serving time in the Bureau of Prisons. Biden said the new initiatives are vital to helping the more than 600,000 people released from prison each year get on stable ground. "Helping those who served their time return to their families and become contributing members of their communities is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism and decrease crime," Biden said. ___ Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report. | |
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| 04-26-22 05:43pm - 971 days | #25 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Putin says Valieva's skating 'perfection' could not be achieved with doping Reuters April 26, 2022, 9:26 AM (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva's performances could not have been achieved with the help of any banned substances. Valieva, who turned 16 on Tuesday, failed a doping test at the Russian national championships last December but the result was only revealed on Feb. 8, a day after she had already helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) win the team event at the Beijing Games. The case cast a shadow on Russians' participation at the Games as they already faced increased scrutiny over separate doping sanctions that saw them compete without their flag and national anthem. "Through her work, she brought the sport to the level of a real form of art," Putin said Valieva at a televised awards ceremony at the Kremlin for medallists from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. "Such perfection cannot be achieved dishonestly with the help of additional substances, manipulations. We very well know that these additional substances are not needed in figure skating." Russian President Putin meets with Olympians in Moscow Russian President Putin meets with Olympians in Moscow Valieva, favourite to win Olympic gold, was cleared to compete in the women's single event in Beijing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but stumbled to fourth place with an error-laden free skate. She became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics during the team event. Valieva's case instigated questions over whether the minimum age for competitors in figure skating, currently 15, needs to be raised to protect minors. Putin said Russian and Belarusian Paralympians, removed from the Beijing Paralympic Games after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, was a case of discrimination based on nationality. "The suspension of athletes from Russia and Belarus not only directly violated the fundamental principles of sport but their most basic human rights were... openly, cynically violated," Putin said at a ceremony with Olympians and Paralympians at the Kremlin. Putin also criticised the International Swimming Federation (FINA) for handing Russian Olympic gold medallist Evgeny Rylov a nine-month suspension for attending a rally backing Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine, calling the move "completely absurd." Many international sports federations have barred both Russian and Belarusian athletes from taking part in international events over Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Christian Radnedge) | |
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| 04-26-22 06:10pm - 971 days | #26 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
How Hollywood reveals the truth about Washington. Bill Hader reveals his young daughter will be a power in Washington. She already knows how to lie convincingly. Which is more than most Republicans can do. ------- ------- Chris Pratt's awkward introduction to Bill Hader thanks to a hilarious prank Yahoo TV George Back April 26, 2022, 12:11 AM Barry star Bill Hader dropped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday to promote Season 3 of his HBO series. While he was there, he also shared a hilarious story about his daughter tricking him into meeting Chris Pratt. Hader and his daughters were eating dinner when he noticed Pratt and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, sitting down. “I go, ‘Guys, don't freak out, but Gardens and Galaxy,’” Hader recalled. “My daughters are like, ‘Oh, my God!’ The 9-year-old, who was 8 at the time, was like, ‘I know his son.’ And I go, ‘Really?’ She's like, ‘Yes, I know his son. Can I go over there and say hi?’ I'm like, ‘He's eating, just leave him alone, please.’” However, after they finished dinner, the former Saturday Night Live star’s daughters convinced him to drop by Pratt’s table. “So I walk over, I go, ‘Hey, Chris. Sorry, but my daughter knows your son,” Hader recalled. “And my daughter goes, ‘I don't know his son! You wanted to meet Chris Pratt!” While Kimmel and his audience found the trick to be hilarious, Hader was understandably embarrassed, but he admitted to also being proud. “I wanted to strangle her, but I was also never more proud of my kid in my life,” Hader admitted, “I go, ‘Why did you do that?’ And she was like, ‘I don't know.’ And I was like, ‘You're gonna make me so much money.” Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on ABC. | |
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| 04-26-22 06:20pm - 971 days | #27 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Florida governor signs bill creating election police unit. Will the new police unit have the power to declare votes by Democrats illegal? Or just have the voters arrested for public indecency? Republicans are fair and honorable. They want to make America great again. To do so, they need to clean Florida and other states in the Untied States of dirty Democrats and other undesirables. DeSantis signed the bill, at a sports bar, because he wanted to celebrate with a few drinks after passing such a wonderful law. ---- ---- Florida governor signs bill creating election police unit Associated Press ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE April 26, 2022, 6:45 AM TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday to create a police force dedicated to pursuing voter fraud and other election crimes, embracing a top priority of Republicans after former President Donald Trump's false claims that his reelection was stolen. The new law comes after the Republican governor made voting legislation a focus this year, pushing the Republican-controlled statehouse to create the policing unit as states reevaluate their own election systems in the wake of Trump's unfounded allegations. DeSantis, who is running for reelection and is widely considered to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has both praised the last election as smooth and suggested more rules were needed to deter fraud, underscoring Trump's lingering influence on Republican policymaking. Critics have deemed the law politically motivated and unnecessary, arguing that local prosecutors can handle election crimes. At a bill signing ceremony Monday at a sports bar in Spring Hill, Florida, DeSantis justified the need for the new law enforcement unit and suggested that existing law enforcement may not be equipped or willing to thoroughly investigate fraud cases. “Some of them may not care as much about the election stuff. I think it's been mixed at how those reactions are going to be. So we just want to make sure whatever laws are on the books, that those laws are enforced," he said. Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected. An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to President Biden. Republicans nationwide have stressed the need to restore public confidence in elections and have passed several voting laws in the past two years aimed at placing new rules around mail and early voting methods that were popular in 2020. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The law creates an Office of Election Crimes and Security under the Florida Department of State to review fraud allegations and conduct preliminary investigations. DeSantis is required to appoint a group of special officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who would be tasked with pursuing the election law violations. Existing state law allowed the governor to appoint officers to investigate violations of election law but did not require him to do so. The law also increases penalties for the collection of completed ballots by a third party, often referred to as ballot harvesting, to a felony. It raises fines for certain election law violations and requires that election supervisors perform voter list maintenance on a more frequent basis. Democrats, the minority party in the state Legislature, have criticized the bill as a way for DeSantis to appeal to Republican voters who believe the 2020 election results were fraudulent, while the governor flirts with a presidential run of his own. “DeSantis’ so-called election reform legislation is a continued attack by the Republican Party to generate public distrust in the integrity of our elections. The bill is unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer funds," said Rep. Tracie Davis, a Democrat. In late March, a federal judge struck down portions of a sweeping election law passed last year in a blistering ruling that alleged the state's Republican-dominated government was suppressing Black voters, and ordered that attempts to write similar new laws in the next decade must have court approval. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker overturned a provision of last year's law limiting when people could use a drop box to submit their ballot, along with a section prohibiting anyone from engaging with people waiting to vote. He also blocked a section that placed new rules on groups that register voters, including one requiring that people working to register voters submit their names and permanent addresses to the state. The DeSantis administration is working to reverse Walker's ruling. | |
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| 04-27-22 06:34am - 970 days | #28 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Marjorie Taylor Greene thanks God that computers can help her with memory issues. Greene can't remember what happened last year, when there were riots in Washington DC. But help is on the way. Computer records can show what Greene did before and during the riots. They can prove whether she fought to keep Donald Trump in power, and to keep Sleepy Joe Biden, a hated Democrat, out of the White House. Vote for Trump, the fightenest President of the Untied States. And stick with Greene. She might be carrying a loaded handgun, so don't argue with this woman. ----- ----- Text messages from Greene put new focus on martial law testimony NBC Universal Zoë Richards and Charlie Gile and Blayne Alexander April 26, 2022, 9:14 AM New text messages from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene surrounding the 2020 election are drawing attention to recent court testimony in which the Georgia Republican said she did not recall any involvement in efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in office. When asked during a hearing Friday if she had advocated for martial law to keep President Joe Biden from taking office, Greene said she could not recall. But a new tranche of text messages obtained by CNN shows Greene broached the idea with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Ron Fein, who is leading a legal challenge to Greene’s candidacy in Georgia over allegations she helped facilitate the Jan. 6 riot, told NBC News on Monday that the text messages undermine her credibility and testimony in the case. “Marjorie Taylor Greene testified under oath that she could not remember telling Trump or his chief of staff to declare martial law to try to keep Trump in power, but her own texts reveal that she did exactly that,” Fein said in a statement. “Anyone who ‘can’t remember’ whether they urged the White House Chief of Staff to talk to the President of the United States about declaring martial law can’t be trusted when they claim they ‘can’t remember’ their own engagement in insurrection,” he added. Greene's lawyer and office did not immediately return requests for comment. In a text message to Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, Greene told Meadows that some GOP lawmakers were saying Trump should call for martial law. “In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!” she wrote. NBC News has not been able to independently confirm all of the text communications, which appear to reveal attempts by the Trump White House and its allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that go well beyond what was previously known. Greene testified under oath for nearly four hours as a witness during Friday's hearing and was asked whether she had advocated for martial law prior to Biden’s inauguration. “I don’t recall. I don’t recall,” Greene said when pressed about conversations and social media posts surrounding the election and Jan. 6. Free Speech for People, an election and campaign finance reform organization led by Fein, filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of a group of Georgia voters aiming to remove Greene from the ballot due to her alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack. Attorneys on both sides in the case have until Thursday to submit final briefs to the court, meaning the new text messages might be cited by plaintiffs. The judge said he plans to finalize his recommendation “about a week later.” That recommendation will then go to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who will decide whether Greene remains on the ballot for the state’s May 24 primary. | |
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| 04-27-22 06:43am - 970 days | #29 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans fighting to prevent election fraud. Donald Trump was the clear winner of the 2020 election. He won the right to be president of the Untied States. But scummy Democrats stole the election and put Sleepy Joe Biden in the White House. Can we have a rigorous judicial review of the election votes, and show people that Trump is the one and true President of the Untied States? Vote for Trump, the leader who will clean the swamp in Washington. ----- ----- Mark Meadows takes center stage in the Jan. 6 investigation Yahoo News Caitlin Dickson April 26, 2022, 4:38 PM A trove of text messages sent and received by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is shedding new light on efforts by former President Donald Trump’s inner circle, confidants and Republicans in Congress to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. CNN reported Monday that it had obtained 2,319 text messages that Meadows had provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The text messages, which were sent or received between Election Day 2020 and Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, include exchanges with administration and campaign officials, Trump’s family, Fox News hosts and more than 40 current or former Republican lawmakers, among others. They place Meadows at the center of a campaign to promote baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election and to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s electoral victory. Included in the texts are numerous exchanges that took place on Jan. 6 as the riot carried out by Trump’s supporters was broadcast on television screens nationwide. In frantic messages, a number of Republicans implored Meadows to compel the president to do something about the violence while others insisted that the rioters were not actually Trump supporters but members of antifa. "It's really bad up here on the hill,” read one message sent by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., on Jan. 6. “They have breached the Capitol.” “POTUS is engaging,” Meadows replied. The texts reported by CNN also show that Meadows was in contact with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Election Day, apparently giving him marching orders on what to tell his audience. “Stress every vote matters. Get out and vote,” Meadows texted Hannity. “Yes sir,” Hannity replied. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows stands with crossed arms. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on April 20. (Jeffrey Collins/AP) On Nov. 19 and Dec. 5, Meadows reportedly sent messages to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump had tried to pressure into overturning his state’s election results. He also responded to texts from Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and an attendee of the Jan. 6 rally, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the most prominent promoters of the election conspiracy theories. The texts included discussions about whether then-Vice President Mike Pence would stick with Trump and throw out election results that the president claimed were illegitimate. On Jan. 5, Meadows received a text from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. "On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence,” Jordan wrote. The next morning, Meadows texted Jordan, "I have pushed for this. Not sure it is going to happen." There are also a number of messages from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., including one from Jan. 17 in which she appears to endorse the idea of Trump declaring martial law rather than allow a transition of power to Biden. Greene tells Meadows that she had been in contact with some fellow representatives who “are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall [sic] law,” adding that “They [Democrats] stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next.” Greene is currently facing a lawsuit in Georgia that could leave her name off the ballot this fall for her role in the events of Jan. 6. The CNN report revealing the texts to and from Meadows followed the release of texts earlier this month showing Meadows discussing potential legal actions with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, aimed at overturning the election results. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks on his phone while standing outside. Meadows speaks on his phone as he waits for President Donald Trump to depart from the White House on Oct. 30, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) The House Jan. 6 committee has accused Meadows of continuing to withhold crucial information about his role in the events leading up to, during and after Jan. 6. According to a court filing released by the committee on Friday, in addition to the 2,319 text messages, which were handed over in December, Meadows’s attorney provided the panel with a privilege log “showing that Mr. Meadows was withholding over 1,000 text messages from his personal cell phone based on claims of executive, marital, and attorney-client privileges.” After initially agreeing to cooperate with the panel last fall, Meadows reversed course in December, refusing to appear for a deposition and filing a lawsuit to block the committee’s subpoenas. In response, the select committee voted to refer him for criminal contempt of Congress. Though the referral was passed by the House of Representatives in December, the Justice Department has not yet said whether it will pursue criminal charges. In its recent filing with the Department of Justice, the select committee requested a summary judgment rejecting Meadows’s claims of privilege, noting that President Biden has chosen to waive executive privilege for records relevant to the investigation, including those specifically requested from Meadows. Trump’s attempts to block Biden from waiving privilege have been blocked by a U.S. District Court judge, a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court, the filing notes. The recent request for summary judgment notes that the select committee’s investigation “has progressed significantly” since it first issued a subpoena to Meadows in September and highlights previously undisclosed details obtained from interviews and depositions with “dozens of witnesses who interacted directly with Mr. Meadows, either in the White House or in connection with the Trump campaign to overturn the 2020 election.” In one such detail, Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson told congressional investigators that the chief of staff had been warned about the potential for violence by Trump supporters at the Capitol ahead of Jan. 6. In a statement issued with the filing on Friday, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the Jan. 6 committee's chairman, and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the committee’s vice chair, urged the court to “reject Mark Meadows’s baseless claims and put an end to his obstruction of our investigation.” “Mr. Meadows is hiding behind broad claims of executive privilege even though much of the information we’re seeking couldn’t possibly be covered by privilege and courts have rejected similar claims because the committee’s interest in getting to the truth is so compelling,” Thompson and Cheney said in the statement. “It’s essential that the American people fully understand Mr. Meadows’s role in events before, on, and after January 6th. His attempt to use the courts to cover up that information must come to an end.” | |
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| 04-27-22 10:53am - 970 days | #30 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans supporting Putin invading Ukraine. First Donald Trump, our glorious President for Life of the Untied States of Trumperland, says Putin is a genius for invading Ukraine. Now Rand Paul says that if Russia invaded Ukraine, it was only trying to take back land that belonged to Russia. Rand Paul is not saying it was right to invade Ukraine. But he is saying Ukraine was part of Russia. So maybe Russia has the right to invade Ukraine. You see the difference? A former National Security Council staffer says, based on Rand Paul comments, that Britain is now justified in attacking the Untied States of Trumperland. This is why we need a strong President: to ward off Russia (and England) from attacking the US. Bring back Donald Trump, and we can sleep peacefully in our beds, knowing that a strong President will keep us safe. ------- ------- 'Ridiculous': Rand Paul's comments on Russia's invasion of Ukraine blasted as echoing Putin's propaganda USA TODAY April 26, 2022, 4:10 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. Sen. Rand Paul got flak Tuesday for his comments on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some people criticizing him for echoing one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's talking points. During an exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Paul pointed out that Russia's attacks, in the recent past, have been on countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Putin has publicly dismissed Ukraine's right to function as a sovereign nation separate from Russia. The Kentucky Republican's comments came during a Senate hearing with Blinken, during which Paul raised concerns about U.S. displays of support for Ukraine potentially joining the NATO military alliance, including during former President George W. Bush and President Joe Biden's administrations. He asked Blinken: "Knowing full well that Ukraine was unlikely to ever join NATO since it had already been 14 years since they said they were going to become members, why was it so important last fall — before this invasion — to continue agitating for Ukraine's admission to NATO?" More: Sen. Rand Paul backs new Emmett Till Antilynching Act, after holding up the old one Blinken responded: "It's a question of standing up for the basic principle, that we strongly adhere to, that there should be and will be an open-door policy when it comes to NATO membership." Paul, who repeatedly has opposed U.S. military involvement in other countries during his political career, questioned the decision to push for "something that we knew our adversary (Russia) absolutely hated and said was a red line." "Now, there is no justification to the invasion. I'm not saying that. But there are reasons for the invasion," said Paul, who later added he's "proud of how well the Ukrainians have fought" and is supportive of their cause. Sen. Rand Paul. Sen. Rand Paul. When Blinken noted Russia has, in the recent past, attacked countries that weren't members of NATO — specifically Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova — Paul countered with: "You could also argue the countries they've attacked were part of Russia, or part of the Soviet Union, rather." Blinken said he disagreed with that proposition, adding: "It is the fundamental right of these countries to decide their own future and their own destiny." Simil: Rand Paul delayed the historic Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson vote, and people were not happy "I'm not saying it's not," Paul responded. "But I'm saying that the countries that have been attacked, Georgia and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union..." Blinken jumped in: "That does not give Russia the right to attack them..." "No one's saying it does," Paul interjected. Blinken continued: " …When everything came to a head, it is abundantly clear, in President Putin's own words, that this was never about Ukraine being potentially part of NATO, and it was always about his belief that Ukraine does not deserve to be a sovereign, independent country." Related: Only one lawmaker voted against all recent legislation aimed at Russia. He's from Kentucky Blowback was swift on Paul's comments Paul's exchange with Blinken was quickly met with disapproval online, including in a critical Rolling Stone article about his comments and tweets by figures like Alexander Vindman, a former National Security Council staffer whose testimony was a key part of former President Donald Trump's first impeachment. "Paul implies that Russia is justified in attacking Ukraine because, UKR was once part of the USSR. By that logic Britain is justified in attacking the U.S. and colonial powers their former holdings. What century does he live in?" Vindman tweeted Tuesday afternoon. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., shared a video of Paul's exchange with Blinken and commented: "Rand Paul truly is ridiculous." Charles Booker, a well-known Kentucky Democrat who hopes to defeat Paul in the fall election, also criticized the senator's statements Tuesday and asked for campaign donations to help boot him out of office. "Rand Paul just attempted to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He is actively pushing Putin’s propaganda in the Senate, and I will remove him from office in November," Booker tweeted. Paul's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal's chief political reporter. Contact her at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul criticized over Russian invasion comments | |
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| 04-27-22 11:07am - 970 days | #31 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
“The family just wants accountability,” Larry Handfield, attorney for the Obumseli family, told Yahoo News. “That’s all the family wants.” Has Donald Trump read about this black man who died? Donald Trump has a heart of gold. He is brave. And honest. He can lend his support to the Florida police, since he is now a resident of Florida (but I'm not sure what state Trump is registered to vote in). But Trump can now investigate whether this white woman was justified in stabbing the dead black man. Everyone knows that people are equal under the law. So if the dead man's family wants accountability, Trump can ensure that people will be treated fairly, under the law. Especially since the Florida state governor is also a Republican. ------- ------- Obumseli family demands answers in stabbing by OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney Yahoo News Marquise Francis April 27, 2022, 3:49 AM Courtney Clenney and Christian “Toby” Obumseli. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: via Instagram, family handout) On April 3, one week before what would have been his 28th birthday, Christian “Toby” Obumseli was stabbed to death by his girlfriend, Courtney Clenney, in a luxury Miami high-rise apartment after what police say was a domestic dispute. Clenney, a white social media influencer and OnlyFans model who also goes by the name Courtney Tailor on social media sites and has millions of followers, called 911 after stabbing Obumseli, a cryptocurrency investor who was Black. When police arrived at the couple’s apartment, Obumseli was taken to a local hospital, where he died from a stab wound to the chest, the Miami Herald reported. Clenney was handcuffed in the apartment and told police that she had feared for her life and acted in self-defense. She was eventually hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation under Florida’s Baker Act, which provides emergency mental health services and temporary detention for people at risk of suicide or a mental health crisis, but she was soon released and was spotted at a hotel bar five days after the stabbing and has yet to be charged. Miami Police declined to comment to Yahoo News on the decision not to charge Clenney, instead emailing an official statement about the incident. “The preliminary investigation determined that both Mr. Obumseli and the female had been involved in a physical altercation,” the statement reads, adding, “Homicide detectives, in conjunction with Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and Medical Examiner Department, continue to investigate the incident.” Clenney and Obumseli, who had recently moved together from Austin, Texas, to Miami, were known to police prior to the fatal stabbing. Department sources told the Miami Herald that officers had been called to their apartment at least four times over the last few months in response to disturbances, but no arrests were ever made. Now that three weeks have passed and charges against Clenney have still not been filed, Obumseli’s family is demanding answers. “The family just wants accountability,” Larry Handfield, attorney for the Obumseli family, told Yahoo News. “That’s all the family wants. The family’s frustrations with police began right from the start. In fact, Handfield said, Miami police did not notify them about Obumseli’s death. Instead, they say they learned about it when the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine called them two days after the killing and asked if they would like to donate his organs. The family initially thought it was a prank call. (The medical school did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News.) The family flew to Miami from Texas to meet with detectives the following day and were frustrated that the police seemed to have already made up their minds about the events surrounding Obumseli’s death. Moreover, Handfield said, they felt dismissed and disrespected by the police. “They were told that Courtney claimed self-defense and they believed her and there was no need for an investigation,” he said. “The detective reached his conclusion in less than 24 hours from reporting to the scene. That is totally inappropriate and something that should never happen.” “We have no cause to believe that this was a case of self-defense,” Obumseli’s cousin Karen Egbuna said at a press conference five days after the killing. Handfield said he thinks Clenney received preferential treatment from police because she is white. “I believe that if she was Black, she would have been arrested and [police would have] let the process play itself out,” he said. “But since she was treated with privilege, she has not been arrested.” Clenney’s lawyer, Frank Prieto, refuted this notion, telling Yahoo News that if Clenney’s statement had not held up, she would have been arrested. “I don’t believe privilege plays a role,” he said. “The crime scene had been thoroughly evaluated. … If her statement was inconsistent with what the scene looked like, there would have been an arrest.” Prieto added that there is evidence of domestic violence that proves the couple had a “tumultuous relationship.” The night of the incident, Prieto said, he saw bruises on Clenney’s body at the police station. “They both have a history of being physical with each other,” he said. “The Friday before [Obumseli was killed], police were called to the apartment because of a domestic dispute, and only because Clenney did not want to press charges was Obumseli not arrested.” Clenney is now in therapy from the incident, Prieto said. “She’s grieving and completely devastated,” he said. “It’s a tragedy that a young man lost his life, but … this was self-defense, and it’s impacted her life as well.” Prieto and Handfield note that Clenney has pending cases in other states, including a 2020 arrest in Texas for driving under the influence and an outstanding 2015 bench warrant for public intoxication in California. Friends and acquaintances of Obumseli and Clenney said the couple had broken up last month, according to CBS Miami, and Obumseli was reportedly sleeping in common areas of their Miami apartment in the days leading up to the stabbing. Ashley Vaughn, a close friend of the couple, told Local 10 News that prior to the evening of April 3, she and her friends had seen Clenney hit Obumseli, but not the other way around. “From what we’ve personally experienced between the both of them, we believe that Christian wouldn’t put her in a position where she would need to stab him to protect herself,” she said. A neighbor with a direct view of the couple’s apartment, however, said he had witnessed Obumseli appearing to throw a punch at Clenney a week prior to the fatal stabbing. Because of their lack of faith in the Miami Police Department, the Obumselis are conducting their own investigation and passing along additional character witnesses together with names, numbers and addresses to the state’s attorney office. “We are providing the information that the police should have done,” Handfield said. “There are a lot of witnesses who can put context and that will show that throughout their relationship, the person that was aggressive throughout was the suspect Miss Courtney.” Obumseli’s brother, Jeffrey, created a GoFundMe page to raise money for a funeral, litigation and counseling, among other fees. As of Wednesday morning, the effort had raised more than $81,000. | |
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| 04-28-22 12:51am - 969 days | #32 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
As the conflict in Ukraine drags on, Putin is considering hiring Donald J. Trump, the famous Commander-In-Chief of the Untied States of Trumperland, as Chief Battle Engineer to overcome Ukraine resistance. Trump is a fan of Putin's genius. Putin is a fan of Donald J. Trump's military career. Trump was awarded the Bonespur Medal of Honor during the Vietnam conflict. After these two geniuses form an alliance, Russia and the Untied States of Trumperland will stand tall. And Sleepy Joe Biden will tremble in his shoes as he waits for the revolution that will put Trump back in the White House. | |
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| 04-28-22 01:17am - 969 days | #33 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Political problems in the Republican party. Trump is considering asking Vlad Putin to appear in Ohio in support of the Republican party. "Putin is a genius in politics. He can sway US voters to support Trump's picks in the upcoming primary." And help calm the waters, so people can focus on sending Trump back to the White House, where he can stablilize world support behind Russia and end the war in Urkraine. Vote for Trump, the most successful businessman to ever become President of the Untied States of Trumperland. ---- ---- Top conservative group fires back at Trump as Ohio Senate primary escalates into GOP civil war Yahoo News Christopher Wilson April 27, 2022, 10:48 AM Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance shakes hands with former President Donald Trump. Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in the upcoming primary, with Trump during an event in Delaware, Ohio. (Gaelen Morse/Reuters) The Club for Growth, long seen as one of the most powerful groups in Republican politics, is sticking with its pick in Ohio’s messy GOP Senate primary despite attacks from top Trump allies backing a rival candidate. The anti-tax organization, which is supporting former state treasurer Josh Mandel in the contest, has begun airing a new ad taking direct aim at the former president’s endorsement of venture capitalist J.D. Vance. Trump backed Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” despite Vance’s previous criticism of him. In the new ad, actors portraying Ohio voters are shown old footage of Vance knocking Trump. In one clip, Vance is shown declaring himself “a Never Trump guy” — a label used by Republicans who refused to support Trump in 2016 and 2020. In another clip, Vance suggests he might vote for Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent in 2016. “Has Trump seen this?” asks one actor in the ad after viewing the footage, later saying of Vance, “Where does he get off saying that?” Another actor says, “We’ve got our own eyes and our own ears.” The ad also includes a reference to Trump’s support of Mitt Romney, with an actress disdainfully noting, “How’d that turn out?” Romney, now a Republican senator from Utah, has since emerged as a leading Trump critic within the GOP and voted twice for Trump's impeachment. “Look, I love Trump, but he’s getting it wrong with J.D. Vance too,” says another actor. It is not the first Club for Growth ad highlighting Vance’s past statements. Late last year, Trump reportedly asked the group to stop airing its ads — which featured Vance calling him “idiot,” “noxious” and “offensive” — worrying that they would hurt Trump’s popularity in the state. The Club for Growth spent $71 million supporting Republican candidates in the 2020 election and has so far raised $38 million for the 2022 midterms, spending $13 million. For his part, Vance has become a stalwart Trump supporter in recent years and is a regular guest on Tucker Carlson’s primetime Fox News program. According to the New York Times, Trump expected the club’s media campaign to stop once he endorsed Vance, but when the attacks continued, he had an assistant send the group’s president, David McIntosh, an angry and expletive-laden text message. In response, a spokesperson for the group told Politico that the group was buying more ad time in support of Mandel. The president’s eldest son, Donald Jr., has since attacked both Mandel and the Club for Growth numerous times on Twitter. Although the Club for Growth opposed Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, it quickly fell in line behind him once he won the presidency and supported his reelection effort in 2020. Trump and the club are backing many of the same candidates in Republican primaries this year, a fact that McIntosh attempted to emphasize to the New York Times. “I very much view this as one race where we’re not aligned, we’re on opposite sides, which doesn’t happen very often,” he told the newspaper. Trump’s endorsement appears to be paying off in the crowded Ohio primary, which includes a number of other candidates in addition to Vance and Mandel. A Fox News poll released Tuesday showed Vance taking the lead in the race, with 23% support compared with Mandel’s 18%. Republican senate candidate Josh Mandel, with a painting of Trump behind him, speaks at a campaign event. Republican senate candidate Josh Mandel at a campaign event in Cortland, Ohio, ahead of next month's primary election. (Gaelen Morse/Reuters) The primary will be held May 3. The winner is expected to face Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in November’s general election. Trump won Ohio in both 2016 and 2020 by 8 points. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report currently predicts that the Republican nominee will have the edge in the general election. Trump’s April 15 endorsement of Vance roiled many Republicans in Ohio who are supporting other candidates in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman. The former president held a rally with Vance on Saturday night where he explained the endorsement. “He’s a guy that said some bad shit about me,” Trump said of Vance. “If I went by that standard, I don’t think I would have ever endorsed anybody in the country.” | |
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| 04-28-22 01:31am - 969 days | #34 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Ex-cop who swung a flagpole against a cop and tackled that cop is claiming self-defense. As an ex-cop, he is an expert in how to claim self-defense. Ex-cops know how police can be brutal. Can even kill unarmed innocents. So the ex-cop was only defending himself when he tried to disarm the cop. And the cop was resisting. If the ex-cop had been carrying a 44 Magnum, he could have shot the cop. But the ex-cop was only trying to defend himself. So he didn't shoot the cop. He only hit him with a flag pole (flags are the symbol of patriotism), and was only trying to show that Donald J. Trump was the rightful President of the Untied States of Trumperland. Not Evil Sleepy Joe Biden, who stole the election from Honest Don (the real name of Donald J. Trump). ---- ---- Ex-cop who swung flagpole, tackled officer on Jan. 6 claims he showed 'restraint' NBC Universal Ryan J. Reilly April 26, 2022, 10:15 AM Scroll back up to restore default view. WASHINGTON — A former New York City police officer who swung a flagpole at and tackled an officer protecting the U.S. Capitol is claiming self-defense, with his lawyer telling jurors that his actions on Jan. 6 were "really a show of restraint." Thomas Webster, a Donald Trump supporter who was in D.C. on Jan. 6 in support of Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is facing six counts, including a charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers using a dangerous weapon. Webster is the fourth Capitol defendant to face a jury trial. The first three— Dustin Thompson, Thomas Robertson and Guy Reffitt — were each found guilty on all counts. Thomas Webster at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (via FBI) Thomas Webster at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (via FBI) Video played during opening arguments on Tuesday shows Webster pushing a barricade and swinging a metal flagpole at an officer before tackling him to the ground, choking the officer with his gas mask. But James E. Monroe, Webster's attorney, told jurors that the officer struck Webster and “started this whole thing.” Monroe claimed that the officer’s use of force as a mob pushed against the barricades was inappropriate, and said his client was upset by the force used against members of the mob of thousands who had already passed a barricade and were unlawfully present on the restricted grounds of the U.S. Capitol during a riot. “This case is built on the lies of a young officer from the Metropolitan Police Department,” Monroe alleged. Noah Rathbun, the officer who was tackled by Webster, is expected to testify. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Arin Levenson Mirell told jurors on Tuesday that Jan. 6 "was a day unlike any day this country has ever seen," adding that thousands of rioters had overwhelmed officers. "Our democracy came grinding to a halt," Mirell said. Webster, she said, "came ready for battle" with a bulletproof vest issued to him by the NYPD. Mirell called Webster "rage-filled" and said Rathbun tried to disarm Webster after he swung the metal flagpole at him, sending part of the pole flying. Finding Webster guilty was the "only reasonable and logical verdict," Mirell said. In an unrelated incident months after the Jan. 6 attack, on May 24, 2021, Rathbun fatally shot an armed man who had allegedly held his ex-girlfriend against her will. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Rathbun shot the 26-year-old when the man “took up a shooting stance and pointed his rifle” at him. Rathbun, who has been on the force since 2015, was not charged in the incident. | |
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| 04-28-22 01:46am - 969 days | #35 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Clarence Thomas Should Recuse Himself From Jan. 6 Cases, Senate Judiciary Chair Says News By BET Staff March 29, 2022 1:06 PM Illinois Senator and chairman of the Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin, says Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol. Durbin said Ginni Thomas's involvement " creates an obvious conflict" for her husband on Jan. 6-related cases. "For the good of the court I think he should recuse himself from those cases," Durbin added. Durbin isn’t alone. Several Democrats are calling for the longest-service Justice to recuse himself from any cases related to Jan. 6. Other Democrats have urged that he recuse himself from cases involving the 2024 election should former President Donald Trump run again. Congressional Democrats have also suggested instituting a code of ethics for the Supreme Court or launching a congressional committee investigation. The reporting on Ginni Thomas's contact with Meadows has invited scrutiny of Thomas’ handling of cases tied to Jan. 6 and the 2020 presidential election. RELATED: Ginni Thomas, Clarence Thomas’ Wife, Says She Was At January 6 Capitol Insurrection In January, Thomas was the sole justice to vote in opposition to the rest of the Court deciding to block Trump's bid to keep administration records from being given to the Jan. 6 House committee. It's unclear if Ginni Thomas's messages would have been included among the White House records being disputed in court. Thomas, who had been hospitalized with an infection and missed a number of appearances at the court, has made it known that he is now joining court proceedings remotely. | |
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| 04-28-22 07:40am - 969 days | #36 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Is Trump guilty of a murder for hire scheme? An informant who helped federal authorities investigate former President Trump's relationship with Duetsche Bank was found dead. Did Trump order the man killed? Is Trump above the law? How dangerous is Trump? Trump boasted that he could shoot a man in broad daylight, and he could get away with it. Has Trump now gone on to become a secret crime boss, which was what he was aiming for since he entered politics? Enquiring minds want to know: does Donald Trump belong in prison, where other criminals are put, for the safety of the public? Why wasn't Trump's connections to Russia made public? Why have people who've known about Trump's dealings with Deutsche Bank died? How many people has Trump ruined? And driven to death by dirty dealings? Did Trump drain the swamp in Washington, like he promised? Or did he pollute Washington even more, with bribery, corruption, graft, and dirty deals that benefitted Trump? ----- ----- A year after disappearing, federal informant in Trump probe found dead at L.A. high school LA Times April 27, 2022, 12:34 PM Valentin Broeksmit, an informant who worked with federal authorities investigating former President Trump's relationship with the German financial giant Deutsche Bank, was found dead Monday on a high school campus in the El Sereno neighborhood. Broeksmit, 46, was reported missing by friends and family a year ago, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He was last seen driving a red 2020 Mini Cooper around 4 p.m. on April 6, 2021, on Riverside Drive at Griffith Park. His car was found, but Broeksmit remained missing — until Monday, when the L.A. County coroner's office identified his body. Cleaning crews at Woodrow Wilson High School found Broeksmit's body just before 7 a.m., according to Sgt. Rudy Perez with the Los Angeles School Police Department. Perez said classes resumed while investigators isolated the scene. Broeksmit appeared to be homeless, according to Perez. The coroner's office did not reveal a cause of death pending an investigation. There was no evidence of foul play or unusual circumstances, according to Capt. Kenneth Cabrera with the Los Angeles Police Department. Broeksmit, the son of Deutsche Bank executive Bill Broeksmit, handed off a trove of confidential documents to federal authorities who were investigating the troubled financial institution, according to a 2019 profile in the New York Times. His father had killed himself in 2014, and Valentin Broeksmit went on to share his father's files with numerous journalists and government investigators, including a trip to an FBI office in Los Angeles, the newspaper reported. Forensic News Network journalist Scott Stedman said he was one of the journalists who received documents from Broeksmit, which highlighted the bank's "deep Russia connections." Broeksmit was reported missing in 2021, but Stedman said they talked in January. "It is very sad," Stedman wrote on Twitter. "I don’t suspect foul play. Val struggled with drugs on and off." Broeksmit was born in Ukraine and adopted by Bill Broeksmit, his mother's second husband, according to the New York Times. As an adult, Valentin had a history of opioid abuse and was a member of an unsuccessful rock band. He referred to himself on Twitter as a "comically terrible spy." The U.S. House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed him numerous times during its examination of Deutsche Bank and its relationship with Trump. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. | |
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| 04-28-22 10:22am - 969 days | #37 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Why Is So Little Known About the 1930s Coup Attempt Against FDR? Business leaders like JP Morgan and Irénée du Pont were accused by a retired major general of plotting to install a fascist dictator. The Guardian Sally Denton ‘The planned coup was thwarted when Butler reported it to J Edgar Hoover at the FBI, who reported it to FDR.’ Photograph: FPG / Staff / Getty Images Donald Trump’s elaborate plot to overthrow the democratically elected president was neither impulsive nor uncoordinated, but straight out of the playbook of another American coup attempt – the 1933 “Wall Street putsch” against newly elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt. America had hit rock bottom, beginning with the stock market crash three years earlier. Unemployment was at 16 million and rising. Farm foreclosures exceeded half a million. More than five thousand banks had failed, and hundreds of thousands of families had lost their homes. Financial capitalists had bilked millions of customers and rigged the market. There were no government safety nets – no unemployment insurance, minimum wage, social security or Medicare. Economic despair gave rise to panic and unrest, and political firebrands and white supremacists eagerly fanned the paranoia of socialism, global conspiracies and threats from within the country. Populists Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin attacked FDR, spewing vitriolic anti-Jewish, pro-fascist refrains and brandishing the “America first” slogan coined by media magnate William Randolph Hearst. On 4 March 1933, more than 100,000 people had gathered on the east side of the US Capitol for Roosevelt’s inauguration. The atmosphere was slate gray and ominous, the sky suggesting a calm before the storm. That morning, rioting was expected in cities throughout the nation, prompting predictions of a violent revolution. Army machine guns and sharpshooters were placed at strategic locations along the route. Not since the civil war had Washington been so fortified, with armed police guarding federal buildings. FDR thought government in a civilized society had an obligation to abolish poverty, reduce unemployment, and redistribute wealth. Roosevelt’s bold New Deal experiments inflamed the upper class, provoking a backlash from the nation’s most powerful bankers, industrialists and Wall Street brokers, who thought the policy was not only radical but revolutionary. Worried about losing their personal fortunes to runaway government spending, this fertile field of loathing led to the “traitor to his class” epithet for FDR. “What that fellow Roosevelt needs is a 38-caliber revolver right at the back of his head,” a respectable citizen said at a Washington dinner party. In a climate of conspiracies and intrigues, and against the backdrop of charismatic dictators in the world such as Hitler and Mussolini, the sparks of anti-Rooseveltism ignited into full-fledged hatred. Many American intellectuals and business leaders saw nazism and fascism as viable models for the US. The rise of Hitler and the explosion of the Nazi revolution, which frightened many European nations, struck a chord with prominent American elites and antisemites such as Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford. Hitler’s elite Brownshirts – a mass body of party storm troopers separate from the 100,000-man German army – was a stark symbol to the powerless American masses. Mussolini’s Blackshirts – the military arm of his organization made up of 200,000 soldiers – were a potent image of strength to a nation that felt emasculated. A divided country and FDR’s emboldened powerful enemies made the plot to overthrow him seem plausible. With restless uncertainty, volatile protests and ominous threats, America’s right wing was inspired to form its own paramilitary organizations. Militias sprung up throughout the land, their self-described “patriots” chanting: “This is despotism! This is tyranny!” Today’s Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have nothing on their extremist forbears. In 1933, a diehard core of conservative veterans formed the Khaki Shirts in Philadelphia and recruited pro-Mussolini immigrants. The Silver Shirts was an apocalyptic Christian militia patterned on the notoriously racist Texas Rangers that operated in 46 states and stockpiled weapons. The Gray Shirts of New York organized to remove “Communist college professors” from the nation’s education system, and the Tennessee-based White Shirts wore a Crusader cross and agitated for the takeover of Washington. JP Morgan Jr, one of the nation’s richest men, had secured a $100m loan to Mussolini’s government. He defiantly refused to pay income tax and implored his peers to join him in undermining FDR. So, when retired US Marine Corps Maj Gen Smedley Darlington Butler claimed he was recruited by a group of Wall Street financiers to lead a fascist coup against FDR and the US government in the summer of 1933, Washington took him seriously. Butler, a Quaker, and first world war hero dubbed the Maverick Marine, was a soldier’s soldier who was idolized by veterans – which represented a huge and powerful voting bloc in America. Famous for his daring exploits in China and Central America, Butler’s reputation was impeccable. He got rousing ovations when he claimed that during his 33 years in the marines: “I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and for bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.” Butler later testified before Congress that a bond-broker and American Legion member named Gerald MacGuire approached him with the plan. MacGuire told him the coup was backed by a group called the American Liberty League, a group of business leaders which formed in response to FDR’s victory, and whose mission it was to teach government “the necessity of respect for the rights of persons and property”. Members included JP Morgan, Jr, Irénée du Pont, Robert Sterling Clark of the Singer sewing machine fortune, and the chief executives of General Motors, Birds Eye and General Foods. The putsch called for him to lead a massive army of veterans – funded by $30m from Wall Street titans and with weapons supplied by Remington Arms – to march on Washington, oust Roosevelt and the entire line of succession, and establish a fascist dictatorship backed by a private army of 500,000 former soldiers. As MacGuire laid it out to Butler, the coup was instigated after FDR eliminated the gold standard in April 1933, which threatened the country’s wealthiest men who thought if American currency wasn’t backed by gold, rising inflation would diminish their fortunes. He claimed the coup was sponsored by a group who controlled $40bn in assets – about $800bn today – and who had $300m available to support the coup and pay the veterans. The plotters had men, guns and money – the three elements that make for successful wars and revolutions. Butler referred to them as “the royal family of financiers” that had controlled the American Legion since its formation in 1919. He felt the Legion was a militaristic political force, notorious for its antisemitism and reactionary policies against labor unions and civil rights, that manipulated veterans. The planned coup was thwarted when Butler reported it to J Edgar Hoover at the FBI, who reported it to FDR. How seriously the “Wall Street putsch” endangered the Roosevelt presidency remains unknown, with the national press at the time mocking it as a “gigantic hoax” and historians like Arthur M Schlesinger Jr surmising “the gap between contemplation and execution was considerable” and that democracy was not in real danger. Still, there is much evidence that the nation’s wealthiest men – Republicans and Democrats alike – were so threatened by FDR’s policies that they conspired with antigovernment paramilitarism to stage a coup. The final report by the congressional committee tasked with investigating the allegations, delivered in February 1935, concluded: “[The committee] received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country”, adding “There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.” As Congressman John McCormack who headed the congressional investigation put it: “If General Butler had not been the patriot he was, and if they had been able to maintain secrecy, the plot certainly might very well have succeeded … When times are desperate and people are frustrated, anything could happen.” There is still much that is not known about the coup attempt. Butler demanded to know why the names of the country’s richest men were removed from the final version of the committee’s report. “Like most committees, it has slaughtered the little and allowed the big to escape,” Butler said in a Philadelphia radio interview in 1935. “The big shots weren’t even called to testify. They were all mentioned in the testimony. Why was all mention of these names suppressed from this testimony?” While details of the conspiracy are still matters of historical debate, journalists and historians, including the BBC’s Mike Thomson and John Buchanan of the US, later concluded that FDR struck a deal with the plotters, allowing them to avoid treason charges – and possible execution – if Wall Street backed off its opposition to the New Deal. The presidential biographer Sidney Blumenthal recently said that Roosevelt should have pushed it all through, then reneged on his agreement and prosecuted them. | |
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| 04-28-22 10:23am - 969 days | #38 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Article continues: What might all of this portend for Americans today, as President Biden follows in FDR’s New Deal footsteps while democratic socialist Bernie Sanders also rises in popularity and influence? In 1933, rather than inflame a quavering nation, FDR calmly urged Americans to unite to overcome fear, banish apathy and restore their confidence in the country’s future. Now, 90 years later, a year on from Trump’s own coup attempt, Biden’s tone was more alarming, sounding a clarion call for Americans to save democracy itself, to make sure such an attack “never, never happens again”. If the plotters had been held accountable in the 1930s, the forces behind the 6 January coup attempt might never have flourished into the next century. Sally Denton is the author of The Plots Against the President: FDR, a Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right. Her forthcoming book is The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land. This post originally appeared on The Guardian and was published January 11, 2022. This article is republished here with permission. | |
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| 04-28-22 12:04pm - 969 days | #39 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Biden tells Russia: You will not conquer Ukraine. Donald Trump comes out swinging: I will raise millions to donate to Russia to keep Putin in power. Putin is a genius. He deserves to conquer Ukraine. Once I am elected President of the Untied States of Trumperland, I will send US military forces to help Putin conquer the world. Together, Putin and I will be world conquerors. We can exist in peace. And put Sleepy Joe Biden in prison, or in his grave, whichever makes more sense. Vote for Donald Trump, the fightenest President we've ever known. Greater than Washington and Lincoln, who might have been good, but not as good or great as Donald Trump, leader of the Free World, dictator of tomorrow. ------ ------ 'Aggression will not win,' Biden tells Russia as he announces new military aid, sanctions Yahoo News Alexander Nazaryan April 28, 2022, 9:55 AM WASHINGTON – With the war in Ukraine entering its third month, President Biden announced new sanctions on Russian oligarchs, as well as a new military aid package to Ukraine, measures intended to convince the Kremlin that it has little to gain from continuing the occupation of its sovereign neighbor. “Aggression will not win. Threats will not win,” Biden said Thursday at the White House. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has stepped up its rhetoric against Ukraine’s allies in the West. Earlier this week, Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, described the threat of nuclear war as “serious.” The new, $33 billion aid package includes “ammunition, armored vehicles, small arms, de-mining assistance, and unmanned aircraft systems,” as well as humanitarian aid, according to a White House letter sent to Congress. The Biden administration hopes to bolster Ukrainian forces as they face the Russian offense in the Donbas region. President Biden, index finger raised, forcefully makes his point at the microphone. President Biden discusses the war in Ukraine at the White House on Thursday. (Andrew Harnik/AP) So far, the offensive has not amounted to the shattering blow the Kremlin hoped to land, but a protracted conflict is likely to present its own challenges, not only on the battlefields of Ukraine but in Washington, where Biden has had to justify the military expenditures as a necessary bulwark against authoritarianism. “The cost of this fight is not cheap,” the president acknowledged, “but caving to aggression is going to be more costly, if we allow it to happen.” The Biden administration also unveiled new sanctions Thursday against the billionaires whose fortunes are closely tied to Putin's. A White House brief on the new measures said the administration would make it “unlawful for any person to knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government,” while also making the process of seizing the oligarchs’ assets easier. “We are going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes,” Biden said. “These are bad guys.” A member of the Spanish Civil Guard stands by a huge white yacht. A Civil Guard next to the yacht Tango in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on April 4, as U.S. federal agents and Spain's Civil Guard search the vessel, an asset linked to Russian billionaire and Putin ally Viktor Vekselberg. (Francisco Ubilla/AP) The Department of Justice will also update the definition of “racketeering” to stymie the oligarchs' attempts to evade the sanctions imposed on them by the U.S. and Western allies. Any assets seized, according to the White House fact sheet, will be used to “remediate harms of Russian aggression toward Ukraine,” which has included the killing of civilians, the devastation of cities and the destruction of infrastructure. Biden had a blunt message for Putin. “You will never succeed in dominating Ukraine,” he said. | |
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| 04-30-22 04:10am - 967 days | #40 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Donald Trump is fighting to preserve the rights of past presidents. Trump does not want to pay fines. Says he doesn't know what papers might have been held by his company. Says he doesn't want to testify under oath, because he was the president, and people should believe what he says, without having to swear under oath. He is and was a politician, remember, and politicians have the right of free speech. And if he can't remember where some papers are, maybe those papers never existed. Or maybe he gave them away. Or maybe they are stored in some place he doesn't remember. Or maybe a lot of other things. So stop bothering him. It's a witch hunt. Not only is it a witch hunt, but also there's something funny going on: the judge did not use a court stenographer at the hearing. And the judge said, according to a reporter: that Trump needs to provide the “who, when, where, what” of his search. The judge also asked “Where did he (Trump) keep files? I assume it wasn’t all in his head." This is obvious evidence of bias: Everyone knows that Trump is the most genius president of the Untied States we've ever had. If Trump needed to keep files, the bestest place to keep them was in his head. And the bestest way of knowing if anything happened during Trump's administration, would be to just ask Trump. ---- ---- Trump, fighting contempt fines, says he doesn't have records Associated Press MICHAEL R. SISAK April 29, 2022, 12:34 PM NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's lawyers, seeking to reverse their client's $10,000-per-day contempt fine, provided a New York judge Friday with an affidavit in which the former president claims he didn't turn over subpoenaed documents to the state attorney general’s office because he doesn't have them. The judge, though, was unmoved and refused to lift sanctions he imposed on Trump on Monday. Judge Arthur Engoron criticized the lack of detail in Trump affidavit, which amounted to two paragraphs, saying that he should have explained the methods he uses to stores his records and efforts he made to locate the subpoenaed files. In the affidavit, which bore Trump's signature and Wednesday's date, the former president said that documents sought in Attorney General Letitia James' civil investigation into his business dealings weren't in his personal possession. Trump, who is appealing the contempt ruling, said he believed any documents would be in the possession of his company, the Trump Organization. In other affidavits, Trump lawyers Alina Habba and Michael Madaio detailed steps they took to locate documents in the Dec. 1 subpoena, including meeting with Trump last month at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and reviewing prior searches of his company's files. Andrew Amer, a lawyer for the attorney general's office, said in a court filing that while the affidavits “provide some additional information” about Trump's efforts to comply with the subpoena, more extensive searches were needed — including of Trump Tower, his residences and electronic devices — before the judge should consider reversing the contempt finding. Frank Runyeon, a reporter for the legal publication Law360, said that Engoron held an impromptu hearing Friday, without a court stenographer, in which he addressed the affidavits from Trump and his lawyers and ruled to keep the contempt fine in place. Runyeon, one of the few members of the news media to attend the unadvertised hearing, reported that Engoron was insistent that Trump provide the “who, when, where, what” of his search, with the judge asking at one point: “Where did he keep files? I assume it wasn’t all in his head." Habba filed a notice of appeal Wednesday with the appellate division of the state’s trial court seeking to overturn Engoron’s contempt ruling. Trump is also challenging Engoron’s Feb. 17 ruling requiring that he answer questions under oath. Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for May 11. James, a Democrat, has said that her investigation has uncovered evidence that Trump may have misstated the value of assets like skyscrapers and golf courses on his financial statements for more than a decade. Her Dec. 1 subpoena sought numerous documents, including paperwork and communications pertaining to his financial statements and various development projects. James asked Engoron to hold Trump in contempt after he failed to produce any documents by a March 31 court deadline. In his ruling, Engoron said that Trump and his lawyers not only failed to meet the deadline, but also failed to document the steps they had taken to search for the documents, as required under case law. Trump, a Republican, is suing James in federal court in an effort to stop her investigation. Oral arguments in that matter are scheduled for May 13. Trump recently labeled her an “operative for the Democrat Party” and has said in written statements that her investigation and a parallel criminal probe overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, another Democrat, are “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.” Bragg said this month that the 3-year-old criminal investigation he inherited in January from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., is continuing “without fear or favor” despite a recent shakeup in the probe’s leadership. Trump’s lawyers contend that James is using her civil investigation to gain access to information that could then be used against him in the criminal probe. So far, the district attorney’s investigation has resulted only in tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and its longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, relating to lucrative fringe benefits such as rent, car payments and school tuition. The company and Weisselberg have pleaded not guilty. | |
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| 05-01-22 12:28am - 967 days | #41 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says Democrats are using politics to paint him with a black bush. Meadows gave the Democrats text messages that he did not want to turn over. And after turning over the messages, some of the Democrats leaked the messages to the press. So just anyone could now read the messages. The messages were private, so the public does not have the right to read them, Meadows believes. And Meadows' lawyers back up this claim: No judge ruled that the messages were public information. We need to clean house. To clean the swamp in Washington. That's what Trump promised. Let's follow through on Trump's promises, and clean the swamp in Washington. If need be, put Trump and all his cronies in jail, if they belong there. ------ ------ Meadows says 1/6 panel has sought to publicly 'vilify' him Associated Press ERIC TUCKER April 30, 2022, 11:51 AM FILE - Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows listens during an announcement of the creation of a new South Carolina Freedom Caucus based on a similar national group at a news conference on April 20, 2022 in Columbia, S.C. Meadows accused the congressional committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol of leaking all of the text messages he provided to the panel in what he says was an effort to vilify him publicly. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows accused the congressional committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol of leaking all of the text messages he provided to the panel in what he says was an effort to vilify him publicly. The argument was made in a filing Friday in Washington's federal court, where Meadows sued in December to invalidate subpoenas issued to him for his testimony and to Verizon for his cell phone records. In the latest filing, lawyers for Meadows asked a judge to reject the committee's request for an expedited ruling in its favor that would force Meadows to comply with the subpoenas. The committee requested an expedited briefing schedule Wednesday after filing its motion the previous week. The lawyers say Meadows deserves a chance through the fact-gathering process known as discovery to take depositions and gather other information relevant to questions that are in dispute, such as the committee's claims that former President Donald Trump did not actually invoke executive privilege over the items subpoenaed by the panel. Related video: New trove of Mark Meadows texts released The House voted in December to hold Meadows in criminal contempt after he ceased cooperating, referring the matter to the Justice Department, which has not said whether it will take action. His motion also accuses the committee of waging a “sustained media campaign" against Meadows. Though it does not provide evidence, it says the committee has leaked all of the text messages Meadows has produced to the committee. “The Congressional Defendants, under the auspices of a legitimate subpoena, induced Mr. Meadows to produce thousands of his private communications only to use them in a concerted and ongoing effort to vilify him publicly through the media,” Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, wrote in the motion. Court filings by the committee have shown how Meadows was in regular contact before Jan. 6, 2021, with Republican allies who advanced false claims of election fraud and supported overturning the results of the race won by President Joe Biden. A filing a week ago cited testimony from a White House aide who said Meadows had been advised beforehand that there could be violence on Jan. 6. The committee declined through a spokesperson to comment Saturday about Meadows' accusations against the panel. | |
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| 05-01-22 12:41pm - 966 days | #42 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Evidence mounts that the GOP tried to keep Sleepy Joe Biden out of the White House. But that's normal for politics. Fight the enemy. Sleepy Joe Biden is a Democrat, so he didn't deserve to win the election. And we should have stuck with Donald Trump, who was making America great again. Take up your 454 Casulls, your Russian Kalashnikovs (it's OK if they are Russian, since Trump is besties with Putin), and start shooting all treasonous Democrats on sight. Let's join together to make America free. Trump uber alles!!! ------ ------ Evidence mounts of GOP involvement in Trump election schemes Associated Press FARNOUSH AMIRI May 1, 2022, 8:05 AM WASHINGTON (AP) — Rioters who smashed their way into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, succeeded — at least temporarily — in delaying the certification of Joe Biden’s election to the White House. Hours before, Rep. Jim Jordan had been trying to achieve the same thing. Texting with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a close ally and friend, at nearly midnight on Jan. 5, Jordan offered a legal rationale for what President Donald Trump was publicly demanding — that Vice President Mike Pence, in his ceremonial role presiding over the electoral count, somehow assert the authority to reject electors from Biden-won states. Pence “should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all,” Jordan wrote. "I have pushed for this," Meadows replied. “Not sure it is going to happen.” The text exchange, in an April 22 court filing from the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot, is in a batch of startling evidence that shows the deep involvement of some House Republicans in Trump’s desperate attempt to stay in power. A review of the evidence finds new details about how, long before the attack on the Capitol unfolded, several GOP lawmakers were participating directly in Trump's campaign to reverse the results of a free and fair election. It's a connection that members of the House Jan. 6 committee are making explicit as they prepare to launch public hearings in June. The Republicans plotting with Trump and the rioters who attacked the Capitol were aligned in their goals, if not the mob's violent tactics, creating a convergence that nearly upended the nation's peaceful transfer of power. “It appears that a significant number of House members and a few senators had more than just a passing role in what went on," Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, told The Associated Press last week. Since launching its investigation last summer, the Jan. 6 panel has been slowly gaining new details about what lawmakers said and did in the weeks before the insurrection. Members have asked three GOP lawmakers — Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — to testify voluntarily. All have refused. Other lawmakers could be called in the coming days. So far, the Jan. 6 committee has refrained from issuing subpoenas to lawmakers, fearing the repercussions of such an extraordinary step. But the lack of cooperation from lawmakers hasn't prevented the panel from obtaining new information about their actions. The latest court document, submitted in response to a lawsuit from Meadows, contained excerpts from just a handful of the more than 930 interviews the Jan. 6 panel has conducted. It includes information on several high-level meetings nearly a dozen House Republicans attended where Trump's allies flirted with ways to give him another term. Among the ideas: naming fake slates of electors in seven swing states, declaring martial law and seizing voting machines. The efforts started in the weeks after The Associated Press declared Biden president-elect. In early December 2020, several lawmakers attended a meeting in the White House counsel's office where attorneys for the president advised them that a plan to put up an alternate slate of electors declaring Trump the winner was not “legally sound.” One lawmaker, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, pushed back on that position. So did GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas, according to testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant in the Trump White House. Despite the warning from the counsel's office, Trump's allies moved forward. On Dec. 14, 2020, as rightly chosen Democratic electors in seven states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — met at their seat of state government to cast their votes, the fake electors gathered as well. They declared themselves the rightful electors and submitted false Electoral College certificates declaring Trump the true winner of the presidential election in their states. Those certificates from the “alternate electors” were then sent to Congress, where they were ignored. The majority of the lawmakers have since denied their involvement in these efforts. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia testified in a hearing in April that she does not recall conversations she had with the White House or the texts she sent to Meadows about Trump invoking martial law. Gohmert told AP he also does not recall being involved and that he is not sure he could be helpful to the committee’s investigation. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia played down his actions, saying it is routine for members of the president’s party to be going in and out of the White House to speak about a number of topics. Hice is now running for secretary of state in Georgia, a position responsible for the state's elections. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona didn’t deny his public efforts to challenge the election results but called recent reports about his deep involvement untrue. In a statement Saturday, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona reiterated his “serious” concerns about the 2020 election. “Discussions about the Electoral Count Act were appropriate, necessary and warranted,” he added. Requests for comment from the other lawmakers were not immediately returned. Less than a week later after the early December meeting at the White House, another plan emerged. In a meeting with House Freedom Caucus members and Trump White House officials, the discussion turned to the decisive action they believed that Pence could take on Jan. 6. Those in attendance virtually and in-person, according to committee testimony, were Hice, Biggs, Gosar, Reps. Perry, Gaetz, Jordan, Gohmert, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Debbie Lesko of Arizona, and Greene, then a congresswoman-elect. "What was the conversation like?” the committee asked Hutchinson, who was a frequent presence in the meetings that took place in December 2020 and January 2021. “They felt that he had the authority to, pardon me if my phrasing isn’t correct on this, but — send votes back to the States or the electors back to the states," Hutchinson said, referring to Pence. When asked if any of the lawmakers disagreed with the idea that the vice president had such authority, Hutchinson said there was no objection from any of the Republican lawmakers. In another meeting about Pence's potential role, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis were joined again by Perry and Jordan as well as Greene and Lauren Boebert, a Republican who had also just been elected to the House from Colorado. Communication between lawmakers and the White House didn't let up as Jan. 6 drew closer. The day after Christmas — more than two months after the election was called for Biden — Perry texted Meadows with a countdown. “11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration," the text read. "We gotta get going!” Perry urged Meadows to call Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general who championed Trump's efforts to challenge the election results. Perry has acknowledged introducing Clark to Trump. Clark clashed with Justice Department superiors over his plan to send a letter to Georgia and other battleground states questioning the election results and urging their state legislatures to investigate. It all culminated in a dramatic White House meeting at which Trump considered elevating Clark to attorney general, only to back down after top Justice Department officials made clear they would resign. Pressure from lawmakers and the White House on the Justice Department is among several areas of inquiry in the Jan. 6 investigation. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the panel from Maryland, has hinted there are more revelations to come. “As the mob smashed our windows, bloodied our police and stormed the Capitol, Trump and his accomplices plotted to destroy Biden’s majority in the electoral college and overthrow our constitutional order,” Raskin tweeted last week. When the results of the panel's investigation come out, Raskin predicted, “America will see how the coup and insurrection converged.” | |
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| 05-02-22 11:21am - 965 days | #43 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The truth comes out: Russia says if you are killed, you are responsible. Self-defense is the only viable option. So if the US wants to smash Russia with nuclear bombs, the US has the right of self-defense. Go, Trump, you genius, and may the US send nuclear bombs to your house to clean the area. Remember, you wanted to clean the swamp in Washington. What better way to clean the swamp than to clean the criminals? Some people say Russia is spreading lies. But what if Russia believes what it's saying? Then is it still a lie? ---- ---- Israel lashes out at Russia over Lavrov's Nazism remarks Associated Press TIA GOLDENBERG May 2, 2022, 10:57 AM Scroll back up to restore default view. TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel on Monday lashed out at Russia over “unforgivable” comments by its foreign minister about Nazism and antisemitism — including claims that Adolf Hitler was Jewish. Israel, which summoned the Russian ambassador in response, said the remarks blamed Jews for their own murder in the Holocaust. It was a steep decline in the ties between the two countries at a time when Israel has sought to stake out a cautious position between Russia and Ukraine and remain in Russia’s good stead for its security needs in the Middle East. Asked in an interview with an Italian news channel about Russian claims that it invaded Ukraine to “denazify” the country, Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements even if some figures, including the country’s president, were Jewish. “So when they say ‘How can Nazification exist if we’re Jewish?’ In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything. For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish," he said, speaking to the station in Russian, dubbed over by an Italian translation. In some of the harshest remarks since the start of the war in Ukraine, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov's statement “unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error.” “The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust,” said Lapid, the son of a Holocaust survivor. “The lowest level of racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for antisemitism.” Later, Lapid said Israel makes “every effort” to have good relations with Russia. "But there's a limit and this limit has been crossed this time. The government of Russia needs to apologize to us and to the Jewish people,” he said. An Israeli official confirmed late Monday that Russia's ambassador, Anatoly Viktorov, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a diplomatic matter, said that Israel “stated its position” and that the sides agreed not to elaborate. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has been more measured in his criticism of Russia's invasion, also condemned Lavrov's comments. “His words are untrue and their intentions are wrong,” he said. “Using the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately." Israel’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem called the remarks “absurd, delusional, dangerous and deserving of condemnation.” “Lavrov is propagating the inversion of the Holocaust — turning the victims into the criminals on the basis of promoting a completely unfounded claim that Hitler was of Jewish descent,” it said in a statement. “Equally serious is calling the Ukrainians in general, and President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy in particular, Nazis. This, among other things, is a complete distortion of the history and an affront to the victims of Nazism.” In Germany, government spokesman Steffen Hebstreit said the Russian government’s “propaganda” efforts weren’t worthy of comment, calling them “absurd.” Nazism has featured prominently in Russia’s war aims and narrative as it fights in Ukraine. In his bid to legitimize the war to Russian citizens, President Vladimir Putin has portrayed the battle as a struggle against Nazis in Ukraine, even though the country has a democratically elected government and a Jewish president whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust. Ukraine also condemned Lavrov's remarks. “By trying to rewrite history, Moscow is simply looking for arguments to justify the mass murders of Ukrainians,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Lavrov's remarks exposed the “deeply-rooted antisemitism of the Russian elites.” World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people and helped defeat Nazi Germany, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity. Repeatedly reaching for the historical narrative that places Russia as a savior against evil forces has helped the Kremlin rally Russians around the war. Israel gained independence in the wake of the Holocaust and has served as a refuge for the world's Jews. Over 70 years later, the Holocaust remains central to its national ethos and it has positioned itself at the center of global efforts to remember the Holocaust and combat antisemitism. Israel is home to a shrinking population of 165,000 Holocaust survivors, most in their 80s and 90s, and last week the country marked its annual Holocaust memorial day. But those aims sometimes clash with its other national interests. Russia has a military presence in neighboring Syria, and Israel, which carries out frequent strikes on enemy targets in the country, relies on Russia for security coordination to prevent their forces from coming into conflict with one another. That has forced Israel to tread lightly in its criticism of the war in Ukraine. While it has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine and expressed support for its people, Israel has been measured in its criticism of Russia. It has not joined international sanctions against Russia or provided military aid to Ukraine. That paved the way for Bennett to be able to try to mediate between the sides, an effort which appears to have stalled as Israel deals with its own internal unrest. The Holocaust and the constant manipulation of its history during the conflict has sparked outrage in Israel before. In a speech to Israeli legislators in March, Zelenskyy compared Russia’s invasion of his country to the actions of Nazi Germany, accusing Putin of trying to carry out a “final solution” against Ukraine. The comparisons drew an angry condemnation from Yad Vashem, which said Zelenskyy was trivializing the Holocaust. ___ Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. | |
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| 05-02-22 09:50pm - 965 days | #44 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
During his confirmation hearings, Brett Kavanaugh was asked about his position on Roe vs Wade. Kavanaugh said that Roe vs Wade was settled as precedent. The simple meaning would appear to be that Roe vs Wade was the law, and would remain the law. However, lawyers (and judges) can be tricky. Now that Kavanaugh is on the US Supreme Court, he now believes that "settled law" can, and sometimes should, be overturned. That is why Kavanaugh appears to be helping to overturn Roe vs Wade. ------ ------ Leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision suggests majority set to overturn Roe v. Wade, Politico reports Reuters May 2, 2022, 6:32 PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court has voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, Politico reported on Monday. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the draft independently. The Supreme Court and the White House declined to comment. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the draft opinion which is dated Feb. 10, according to Politico. Four of the other Republican-appointed justices – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - voted with Alito in the conference held among the justices, the report added. "It is possible there have been some changes since then (Feb 10)," Politico reporter Josh Gerstein, who broke the story, said on MSNBC late on Monday. After an initial vote among the justices following the oral argument, one is assigned the majority opinion and writes a draft. It is then circulated among the justices. At times, in between the initial vote and the ruling being released, the vote alignment can change. A ruling is only final when it is published by the court. In a post on Twitter, Neal Katyal, a lawyer who regularly argues before the court, said if the report was accurate it would be "the first major leak from the Supreme Court ever." (Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Kim Coghill and Michael Perry) | |
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| 05-03-22 04:36am - 964 days | #45 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The truth revealed. Many Democrats and Republicans know that Sleepy Joe Biden is a Catholic. What they didn't know is that Joe Biden worked tirelessly to ensure that Brett Kavanaugh, the beer-drinking man who might have enjoyed sex while younger, made it to the Supreme Court, where Kavanaugh could help to overturn Roe vs Wade and other cases of settled law that Catholics and anti-union forces oppose. Even Donald Trump, the finest President of the Untied States of Trumperland we've ever known, has worked in secret to help Sleepy Joe. Let us vote for Donald Trump to become our next President, and to help make America great again. Only by working together can we make sure Russia does not invade the good old Untied States of Trumperland. Putin, and Russia, have vowed to defeat the Untied States if we invade Russia. So we need Trump's support to stop WWIII, which could mean the loss of hundreds of innocent lives. Trump uber alles. ---------------- Russia warns WWIII risk ‘very significant’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (en.Kremlin.ru/Released/TNS) April 26, 2022 Ryan Morgan Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Monday that the risk of a third world war “cannot be underestimated,” and said the U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are adding to that risk by supplying weapons to Ukraine. In a Monday interview with the “Big Game” program on Russian state-run television Channel One, Lavrov said Russia agreed on the “inadmissibility of nuclear war” and said avoiding such conflict is “our principled position.” However, Lavrov warned that “now the risks are very significant.” “The danger is serious, real. It cannot be underestimated,” Lavrov said. Throughout the interview, Lavrov criticized the U.S. for the collapse of various nuclear arms control agreements and for building alliances like NATO and AUKUS that could challenge Russia. Lavrov also criticized the U.S. and NATO for supplying arms to Ukraine. Lavrov said the U.S. and other western nations often speak of trying to avoid World War III, but said they undermine these efforts by arming Ukraine and bolstering its defenses against the ongoing Russian invasion. “Everyone says that in no case should a third world war be allowed,” Lavrov said. “It is in this context that the constant provocations of the President of Ukraine V.A. Zelensky and his team should be considered. They demand almost the introduction of NATO troops in order to protect the Ukrainian government. But everyone always says that they will give Kyiv weapons. This also adds fuel to the fire. They want to force the Ukrainians to fight with Russia to the last soldier with these arms deliveries, if only this conflict dragged on longer, so that Russia, they hope, would suffer more and more from it.” Later on in the interview, Lavrov said, “NATO is, in essence, going to war with Russia through a proxy and arming that proxy.” Lavrov raised further concerns that the U.S. is not keeping track of the military equipment it has supplied to Ukraine. “I have read several anonymous statements by the active US military to the question of what happens to these weapons when they cross the Ukrainian border, where they will find their final destination. They said: “We have no information about where all these weapons go,” Lavrov said. Lavrov particularly criticized the U.S. for supplying man-portable anti-aircraft missile launchers and anti-tank Javelin missiles, which he said could be used for “terrorist attacks.” Lavrov said western-supplied weapons are making their way into the hands of “neo-Nazi” paramilitary groups like the Azov and Aidar Battalions and other militia groups that are fighting to defend Ukraine but which are not under the full control of the Ukrainian military. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appeared to respond to Lavrov’s comments on Monday by tweeting, “Russia loses last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine. Thus the talk of a ‘real’ danger of WWIII. This only means Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine. Therefore, the world must double down on supporting Ukraine so that we prevail and safeguard European and global security.” During his interview, Lavrov accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of contradicting himself throughout negotiations with Russia. Lavrov predicted the ongoing fighting between Russia and Ukraine “will end with a treaty” but said how that treaty looks will “be determined by the stage of hostilities at which this treaty becomes a reality.” A senior U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal on Monday the U.S. is working to give Ukraine “the strongest possible hand” in peace negotiations going forward. US Reps. McGovern, Keating visit Kyiv with Pelosi, blast Putin: ‘He has committed war crimes’ Ukrainian forces track down, arrest citizens for pro-Russian views online Edited on May 03, 2022, 05:12am | |
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| 05-03-22 06:33pm - 964 days | #46 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who voted to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, says she supports Roe vs Wade. But Brett Kavanaugh, an expert in law, says Roe vs Wade is only settled law, and the Supreme Court can change the law. Joe Biden says he's against busting the filibuster. So Sleepy Joe Biden is secretly supporting the Supreme Court in overturning Roe vs Wade, since Joe Biden is a Catholic, and the Pope says abortions are wrong. Biden and Trump, working together in secret, have done the impossible: overturned Roe vs Wade. And anti-abortionists throughout Trumperland can now claim victory. Joe Biden is now a demonstated liar. He says you need a majority of Democrats in the House to pass legislation to make Roe vs Wade the law. That is a lie. The US Senate filibuster means 60 votes are needed to stop debate on a bill. That a simple majority is not enough. We must rise up and dump Joe Biden, and put Donald Trump, a man of truth and honor, back in the White House. He will calm the masses, and make America Free, White, and the Land of Honor. ----- ----- 'I am angry': Warren blasts 'extremist' Supreme Court after Roe opinion leaks Yahoo News Nicole Darrah May 3, 2022, 11:14 AM Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., appeared shaken up as she talked to members of the press on Tuesday about the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “I am angry,” she said as she marched to a protest. “Angry and upset and determined.” “I am angry,” she repeated once she made it to a rally outside the Supreme Court. “I am here because I am angry, and I am here because the United States Congress can change all of this! Angry, but committed.” On Monday night, the political news outlet Politico sent shock waves across Washington and the nation when it published a leaked draft of the Supreme Court overturning the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Elizabeth Warren Sen. Elizabeth Warren at a demonstration outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters) The draft, from February, could still change before the expected ruling in June. But the conservative majority on the court appears ready to dismantle Roe, a long-held policy aim in Republican circles. Such a decision would send abortion laws to the states, and many GOP-led states have already passed laws to outlaw abortion the moment the high court acts. “They have been out there plotting, carefully cultivating these Supreme Court justices so they could have a majority on the bench who would accomplish something that the majority of Americans do not want,” Warren said, blasting the “extremist” majority on the court. Warren said her anger was driven by concern for the poor women in Republican-controlled states who lack the resources to travel to Democratic states that maintain legal abortion rights. “I am angry because of who will pay the price for this. It will not be wealthy women. Wealthy women can get on an airplane, they can fly to another state, they can fly to another country, they can get the protection they need,” she told the rally before the court building. “This will fall on the poorest women in our country. This will fall on the young women who have been abused, who are victims of incest. This will fall on those who have been raped. This will fall on mothers who are already struggling to work three jobs, to be able to support their children they have.” Warren, who ran for president in 2020, argued that Congress should pass a federal law protecting abortion rights. That effort faces an uphill battle, as Republicans would be sure to filibuster the measure in the Senate, and moderate Democrats in the chamber are unlikely to buck the filibuster. “The United States Congress can keep Roe v. Wade the law of the land — they just need to do it,” Warren said, also endorsing expanding the number of Supreme Court justices. Several other liberal lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, also called for the filibuster to end and for Roe v. Wade to be codified. “Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW,” Sanders tweeted. “And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes.” President Biden on Tuesday told reporters he would work to codify the decision into law, saying it “makes a lot of sense.” He also looked ahead to this year’s midterm elections. “If the court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose,” Biden said in a statement. “And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November. At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law.” | |
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| 05-04-22 02:00pm - 963 days | #47 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The truth revealed: Russia says Jews were responsible for the dead Jews in WW2. The Jews worked with the Nazis to kill other Jews. And now Israel and Jews are working to help Ukraine, which is led by a Jewish Nazi. Russia, to defend Russians and Jews, must invade Ukraine and put down the Nazis. And maybe Russia will have to invade the Untied States of Trumperland, to teach Sleepy Joe Biden a lesson: never argue with a Russian! ---- ---- Russia lashes out at Israel as rift over Holocaust and Ukraine widens Yahoo News Alexander Nazaryan May 3, 2022, 6:32 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. The Kremlin escalated its rhetorical dispute with Israel over World War II history on Tuesday morning by reiterating and expanding on the falsehood-riddled comments made by Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, about the supposed collaboration of Jews during the Holocaust with their own Nazi killers. In a post titled “On Antisemitism,” published on the Telegram social media network, Russia’s foreign ministry tried to equate Israel's support for Ukraine with Jews whom it alleged collaborated with Nazis in World War II, arguing (incorrectly) that history “is unfortunately familiar with tragic examples of Jewish-Nazi collaboration.” It went on to accuse the current regime in Kyiv — headed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish — of precisely such complicity, while insisting to Israel that it was the Red Army “that stopped the Holocaust and the destruction of the Jewish world.” The post went so far as to suggest that Israel, which has not played a prominent role in supporting Ukraine in its war effort, may be too naive to realize that after “canceling” Russians, the Ukrainian leadership will inevitably move against the nation’s Jewish population. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in front of the miscrophone, stares fixedly at an interlocutor (not seen) at a conference table. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting in Moscow on April 27. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) It was a remarkable turn of events, considering that when the war began, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sought to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Slow to help at first, Israel offered Ukraine material support late last month. If that support has been more limited than that of European nations and the United States, that is largely because Israel’s precarious geopolitical status leaves it little room to maneuver between allies and foes. Still, it is not entirely clear why the Kremlin has decided to invoke one of the most controversial and misunderstood aspects of World War II history as a means of persuading Israel — and, presumably, other nations — that it was right to invade Ukraine. Such an attempt may have been inevitable, given that Russia’s initial rationale for attacking its much smaller neighbor was a need to “de-Nazify” Ukrainian leadership. Lavrov offered his own thoughts on the matter on Sunday, telling an Italian outlet,“Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent antisemites are usually Jews.” He also repeated the debunked claim that the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, was partly Jewish. Having just commemorated the Holocaust the previous week, Israeli leadership vigorously denounced Lavrov’s remarks. “Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks are both an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error,” Lavrov’s counterpart, Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid, wrote on Twitter. “Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of antisemitism.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid at a podium beside the Israeli flag, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs printed on the wall behind him. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid holds a press conference on the question of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem on April 24, 2022. (Israeli Gov't Press Office (GPO/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Despite the fact that there is little evidence that Lavrov’s argument — or any other Russian justification for the Ukraine invasion — has gained any traction, Russia’s foreign ministry decided to post a lengthy exposition on Telegram that called Lapid’s statement “anti-historical” and repeated Lavrov’s claim that European Jews were responsible for their own destruction. The Russian foreign ministry charged Zelensky with “consciously” abetting Ukrainian neo-Nazis, comparing him to Jewish leaders during World War II who may have been aware of some aspects of the Holocaust but who chose to say nothing. Zelensky, on the other hand, is helping neo-Nazis “quite voluntarily,” the Telegram post said. Russia's claims about complicity with the Nazis fail to reflect what the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum calls “impossible moral dilemmas” faced by Jewish leaders in Eastern European ghettos, from which hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported to the death camps of Poland. The Nazis kept secret their plans for the Holocaust, telling Jews that they were merely being “resettled” in Poland. Rumors of the death camps did reach the ghettos, where Jews were housed in inhumane conditions, but many refused to believe them. Even as the Russian foreign ministry proffered its arguments about Jewish-Nazi collaboration, it acknowledged — in the same Telegram post — that any such collaboration on the part of Jewish leaders was, in the words of three leading Israeli historians, a “marginal phenomenon.” | |
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| 05-06-22 04:40am - 961 days | #48 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
HuffPost Stephen Colbert Pokes Trump Right In His Sorest Of All Sore Spots Entertainment Stephen Colbert Pokes Trump Right In His Sorest Of All Sore Spots There's one insult the former guy doesn't like at all. By Ed Mazza May. 6, 2022, 01:09 AM EDT Stephen Colbert spotted a moment in a new interview where Donald Trump admitted that there’s an insult he really doesn’t like. The former president told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he took a cognitive test because he didn’t like being called “stupid.” As Colbert noted, the exam does not measure intelligence but looks for signs of cognitive impairment. Trump, however, crowed about passing. “It was an amazing thing,” he said, suggesting it forced his critics to admit to his intelligence. “They now call me a dictator and other things, but they don’t call you stupid.” Colbert was stunned into silence for about 8 seconds. “He thinks we don’t call him stupid?” he finally said, then dramatically turned to another camera for a closeup. “What a moron!” | |
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| 05-06-22 05:32am - 961 days | #49 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Politics has elements of show business. The House of Representatives would transcribe an interview of Rudy Giuliani. But it denied him the right to record the interview. So Rudy Giuliani cancelled the interview. I'm not sure what is happening, or why? Why is the committee saying Rudy Giuliani can't record the interview? Are they afraid that Giuliani will edit the record, as many politicians do, and make it appear favorable to Giuliani? --- --- Rudy Giuliani cancels scheduled appearance before Jan. 6 panel NBC Universal Tom Winter and Garrett Haake and Zoë Richards May 5, 2022, 7:24 PM WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani will no longer meet Friday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, his lawyer confirmed. The last-minute change, attorney Robert Costello said, came after the House committee denied a request to record the scheduled interview. Costello said he made the request in advance so there would be no allegation of covertly recording Giuliani's testimony. Costello said it's now up to the committee how to proceed. Giuliani’s canceled appearance was previously reported by CNN. In a statement Thursday, committee spokesperson Tim Mulvey said Giuliani had agreed to participate in a transcribed interview but “informed committee investigators that he wouldn’t show up unless he was permitted to record the interview, which was never an agreed-upon condition.” “Mr. Giuliani is an important witness to the conspiracy to overthrow the government and he remains under subpoena,” Mulvey said. “If he refuses to comply the committee will consider all enforcement options.” The committee subpoenaed Giuliani and three other allies of former President Donald Trump in January over efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The panel identified Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn as among the most ardent promoters of Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. The committee said its interest in Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, stemmed from his efforts to, among other things, “convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results.” Giuliani was in contact with Trump and members of Congress “regarding strategies for delaying or overturning the results of the 2020 election,” the subpoena states. Failing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee could prompt the panel to recommend that Giuliani face a contempt charge, a process that would involve a House vote. The committee took similar steps with former White House strategist Steve Bannon and ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. | |
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| 05-06-22 08:42am - 961 days | #50 | |
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LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Texas governor thinking about suing the federal government about free public education. Says public education is expensive, not free. The Texas governor sent a busload of immigrants to Washington, D.C., last month, in what the White House called a publicity stunt. Doesn't the governor of Texas have a right to publicity? Especially when he did not vote for Joe Biden? ----- ----- Abbott says Texas could challenge Supreme Court ruling that states educate all, including undocumented The Hill Monique Beals May 6, 2022, 7:24 AM Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday said his administration may challenge a Supreme Court ruling that states must provide free public education to all children, including undocumented immigrants. “Texas already long ago sued the federal government about having to incur the costs of the education program, in a case called Plyler versus Doe,” the governor said on “The Joe Pags Show.” He added that “the Supreme Court ruled against us on the issue about denying, or let’s say Texas having to bear that burden.” Plyler v. Doe is a 1982 Supreme Court case that rejected the denial of public education funding for children who are undocumented. “I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler versus Doe was issued many decades ago,” Abbott said. The Hill has reached out to Abbott for comment. Abbott has also been a leading opponent of the Biden administration’s decision to lift Title 42, a Trump-era public health rule that prevented migrants from seeking asylum to stem the spread of COVID-19. Abbott sent a bus full of immigrants to Washington, D.C., last month, in what the White House called a publicity stunt. The Texas governor, who is running for reelection this year, also temporarily ramped up border inspections for trucks crossing into Texas, creating logjams that cleared only when Mexican governors pledged to increase security measures on their side of the border. Abbott’s remarks follow the Monday night leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that established the right to an abortion in the U.S. That report has prompted some activists and advocates to question what other Supreme Court precedents on basic rights could be overruled in the future. | |
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