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03-03-21 06:30am - 1390 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Sheriff's dept. executes search warrant on Tiger Woods' car: 'Trying to determine if a crime was committed' Yahoo Sports Jason Owens March 2, 2021, 10:33 PM The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department executed a search warrant to investigate the black box from the car Tiger Woods crashed last week. Sheriff’s Deputy John Schloegl confirmed the news, telling USA Today on Tuesday that the department sought the data from the car to determine if criminal charges were necessary. “We’re trying to determine if a crime was committed,” Schloegl said, per USA Today. “If somebody is involved in a traffic collision, we’ve got to reconstruct the traffic collision, if there was any reckless driving, if somebody was on their cell phone or something like that. "We determine if there was a crime. If there was no crime, we close out the case, and it was a regular traffic collision.” Schloegl's statement contradicts Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who declared last week that the single-car rollover was "purely an accident." A law enforcement officer looks over a damaged vehicle following a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in the Rancho Palos Verdes suburb of Los Angeles. Woods suffered leg injuries in the one-car accident and was undergoing surgery, authorities and his manager said. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) A law enforcement officer looks over a damaged vehicle following a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, in the Rancho Palos Verdes suburb of Los Angeles. Woods suffered leg injuries in the one-car accident and was undergoing surgery, authorities and his manager said. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Villanueva told reporters on Wednesday that officials would investigate the black box to determine cause, but ruled out charges of reckless driving or otherwise. "No," Villanueva said when asked if Woods could face a reckless driving charge. "A reckless driving charge has a lot of elements into it. This is purely an accident." Villanueva then explained that investigators would seek to determine if a driving infraction was warranted. "Reckless driving is actually more than an infraction," Villanueva continued. "That's a misdemeanor crime that has a lot of elements attached to it. This is nothing like that." Villanueva made that statement a day after the crash and prior to the completion of the investigation, which is still ongoing. The Sheriff's department issued the following statement to USA Today to address the conflicting information provided by Villanueva and Schloegl: “The Sheriff spoke about the information known at that time, and said it appeared to be a traffic accident,” the statement reads, per USA Today. “However, the traffic collision investigation is (on)going and traffic investigators have not made any conclusions as to the cause of the collision.” The Sheriff's Department continues to rule out intoxication playing a role in the crash. Villanueva said on the day of the accident that there "was no evidence of impairment" on the scene. Schloegl told USA Today that law enforcement did not seek a warrant to examine blood that might have been collected from Woods at the hospital. He said that Woods had been cooperative and that there was "no probable" cause for a warrant. Woods underwent emergency surgery to repair multiple fractures of his right leg and a shattered right ankle. The accident took place on a winding stretch of road south of Los Angeles known as a hot spot for accidents. Woods was driving downhill when his car hit a median and rolled several times before coming to a stop in a gully. Woods remained hospitalized over the weekend for followup procedures with his team declaring that he was "recovering and in good spirits." There have been no updates on Woods' condition since he tweeted his thanks on Sunday after his fellow PGA Tour golfers honored him by wearing his trademark red shirt and black pants at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship. | |
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03-03-21 06:21am - 1390 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
These are desperate times. Texas governor has ruled that Texans no longer need to wear masks. Putting the rest of the United States at risk, as Texans can flee the corona virus by running to states outside of Texas. Biden needs to decide: Bomb Texas, to save the rest of the country. Or risk the spread of the disease while playing with his fiddle and letting more people die. Enquiring minds want to know: what is the right moral choice: Bomb Texas, or send in the National Guard to keep Texans inside the State of Texas? Or, maybe Biden can put ex-president Trump in charge of building a wall around Texas, to keep Texans where they belong, in the free state of Texas. ------ ------ Washington Post warns what easing Texas COVID-19 rules may do to rest if the country HuffPost Lee Moran March 3, 2021, 2:01 AM The editorial board of The Washington Post joined the growing chorus of criticism being leveled at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday after he announced the end of the state’s mask mandate and the imminent relaxation of other restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. In a scathing column, the newspaper’s board described the decision ― which comes as daily new infections plateau ― as “premature and reckless.” Abbott was “gambling with the health of his state and beyond,” it said. “The governor’s decision may cheer those feeling rebellious, fatigued and impatient with the year-long pandemic restrictions,” wrote the board. “But the result of opening too soon will be viral spread, and more suffering.” “The winter holidays and the third surge were awful,” it concluded. “A fourth surge — which could spread beyond Texas — is the last thing the country needs just as vaccines are being rolled out. Mr. Abbott is throwing a match on kindling.” Read the full editorial here. Fears over Texas’ relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions were echoed by White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt, who described it to MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Tuesday as “a mistake.” Former White House medical adviser, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, warned Abbott’s move will “endanger the lives of millions of Texas.” “This is his ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment and it is not a good one,” Reiner told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “We’ve seen this movie and doesn’t turn out well.” Austin Mayor Steve Adler (D) suggested Abbott’s decision was not based on data or science: Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), meanwhile, called it a “death warrant for Texas.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. | |
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03-01-21 09:53am - 1392 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Salma Hayek admits she's a liar. But says God will forgive her because women have the right to fudge their actual weight. ------ ------ Salma Hayek says she lies about her weight, but not her age: 'I like being 54' Yahoo Life Pop Culture Erin Donnelly February 25, 2021, 2:46 PM Salma Hayek tends to celebrate her birthdays with carefree bikini selfies, so it's little surprise that the 54-year-old actress is all about embracing her age. In an interview with NBC's Savannah Guthrie for "Six-Minute Marathon," the Frida star was asked about the age she'd choose to be for a week. Hayek responded with her actual age. "I'm excited about my age," the Oscar-nominated actress told Guthrie. "I don't lie about my age." The Today host replied that Hayek seemed to be "possibly reverse-aging," much to the star's delight. "I like my numbers," Hayek continued. "I like being 54. It's an accomplishment." While the body-confident celebrity is leaning into her 50s, she hasn't always been so thrilled to get older. "You know what, I hated it when I turned 30," she admitted. "Oh my God, I had a crisis." Salma Hayek says she's Salma Hayek says she's "excited" about being 54. (Photo: Gisela Schober/Getty Images) While Hayek doesn't lie about her age, she 'fessed up to doing some number-crunching about her weight. "I'm not much of a liar, but I am Mexican so I like to embellish," she told Guthrie, adding that her most recent fib was likely when she "lied yesterday about my weight to my husband." Hayek is married to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, with whom she shares 13-year-old daughter Valentina. When Guthrie suggested that lying about weight was fair game, Hayek responded, "I agree with you, it's kind of like embellishing in the other direction." The interview also saw the actress opening up about her wellness practices, including meditation and yoga. Hayek added that she swears by a 5-minute workout that she created — but sadly couldn't demonstrate on camera. "I invented an exercise, it's like 5 minutes and it works my entire body," she teased, adding, "I have invented like one little routine that's very weird and it's kind of working. You're sore the next day [but] when you're doing it you don't feel it because you use inertia to do it." Time to drop that workout tape! | |
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03-01-21 09:39am - 1392 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Texas attorney general sues electric provider for gouging customers. The electric provider is effectively bankrupt, since Texas took away the provider's customers and denied the provider access to electricity. Way to go, Texas. The state where Ted Cruz, our fightenest Senator, went to Cancun on vacation while millions of Texans were freezing without electricity and water. Also, Donald Trump, our beloved president, revealed that Ted Cruz's father assisted in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But all's fair in love and war. And Trump forgave Ted Cruz for any crimes his father may have committed. ------------ ------------ AG sues Texas utility over customers' sky-high energy bills AOL Associated Press March 1, 2021, 7:48 AM AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas' attorney general said Monday he's suing electricity provider Griddy for passing along massive bills to its customers during last month's winter storm. The lawsuit comes days after Texas' power grid manager effectively shut down Griddy by revoking its access to the state's electricity market. Griddy charges $10 a month to give people a way to pay wholesale prices for electricity instead of a fixed rate. But when temperatures plummeted well below freezing last month, wholesale prices spiked and Griddy customers were left with sky-high electricity bills. “Griddy misled Texans and signed them up for services which, in a time of crisis, resulted in individual Texans each losing thousands of dollars," Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “As Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering even worse as it debited outrageous amounts each day.” The lawsuit accused Griddy of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks refunds for customers. The unusually heavy winter storm blanketed much of Texas with snow, knocking out electricity to 4 million customers and leaving many struggling to find clean water. Meanwhile, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, shifted about 10,000 Griddy customers to other utilities on Friday. Griddy said in a statement that ERCOT “took our members and have effectively shut down Griddy.” “We have always been transparent and customer-centric at every step. We wanted to continue the fight for our members to get relief and that hasn’t changed,” the statement said. | |
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02-26-21 07:19pm - 1395 days | #3 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
tangub, I believe your reviews, although infrequent, are some of the most informative reviews posted at the PU site. It would be disappointing if you stopped participating at the PU site. We've lost too many members who made the site interesting and worthwhile to visit. Just my two cents, but you would be missed. | |
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02-25-21 09:48am - 1396 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Article says RabbitsReviews gets over 260,000 daily users. That seems like a huge number. I had no idea the site was that popular. I'd be interested in knowing what the daily user count is for the Porn Users site, if it's at all comparable. https://www.metart.com/blog/20210225/Fin...h_Rabbit___s_Reviews MetArt Find the Porn You Love With Rabbit’s Reviews Feb 25, 2021 - by: Rose Whether you are hunting for the best softcore porn sites or you simply wish to peruse 100s of galleries of artistic nudes, finding the hottest erotica should always be an easy task. You will also want to feel safe when searching online. As we all know, the internet is full of malware and other threats. Thankfully, there is a safe place called RabbitsReviews. Over a Decade of Reliable Porn Reviews RabbitsReviews was started by an aspiring college student back in 2003, who felt there was a lack of authenticity when it came to porn sites delivering on what they promised on their tour pages. More unbiased reporting was needed, so he combined his passion for porn with his personal experience buying memberships and launched a review site dedicated to the truth. Today, they have over 260,000 daily users, who follow the Rabbit down the hole to the hottest porn websites and the deepest discounts. The reviewers are experts at providing detailed accounts of premium sites so that you know exactly what you’re getting before you spend any money. A Brand Based on Honesty, Advocacy and Trust Rabbit’s mission is to lift the veil on which adult sites are worth the cash, what they are offering members and the cost of a monthly and multi-month subscription. They also secure incredible discounts that you won’t find elsewhere. Expect honest reviews that do not sugarcoat anything and are written by experienced people you can trust to have your back as a consumer. Explore Reviews From Amateur to VR With over 50 categories, including Teen, Babes and Softcore, you can explore 1000s of straightforward reviews of popular websites. Find out the number of videos in their library and how many can be viewed in Full HD, 4K or higher. They even verify how a site runs on mobile devices and if there are any kinks to work out. You will also learn how often a site is updating and whether or not you can download the movies, as many sites have restrictions. The reviews also provide valuable insights into the production style and whether or not a site fits the bill when it comes to the category it’s representing. Browse Porn With Peace of Mind It’s no secret that browsing for adult content can be risky, especially if you are inexperienced and don’t know where to go. You can end up clicking on a bad link and then get hit with viruses that can harm your PC or smartphone – or even steal your personal information. You won’t have to worry about any of that with Rabbits. Each site listed has passed a security test. The reviewers sign up to the site as any potential member would and they look out for things like limited trials and pre-checked cross-sales, which if you are not careful, could end up putting extra charges on your monthly bill. Save Big With Deep XXX Discounts You’ll be happy to know that RabbitsReviews has an entire section dedicated to Discounts. There you can explore 1,200+ reviews of premium adult sites, some of which are currently marked 50% off a monthly membership. You can take advantage of these sales every day and during the holidays they add some extra sprinkles on top. During peak times like Christmas, Thanksgiving and even Valentine’s Day, Rabbits runs Flash Sales and you can sign up for as little as $10/month! Signing up for their newsletter is the best way to stay on top of specials. Get Your Porn Membership Insured One of the best things about Rabbit’s Reviews is their Money Back Guarantee, which is like having insurance for your porn subscription. Sites that participate in the program will have a gold icon on the review, which means that if you sign up and things just don't meet your expectations, you can get a full refund. Reach out to the Rabbit team within three days of joining and their reps will do the cancellation for you, no questions asked. All you have to do to take advantage is sign up as a free MyPorn member, which is safe and spam-free. Your Portal to the Hottest Porn Sites Why spend your time surfing the net for premium porn and never getting anywhere? This is why I recommend RabbitsReview’s as the best resource for high-quality adult content featuring all your favorite models – and all our MetArt Network sites, of course! You’ll be in good hands and feel confident shopping thanks to their transparent reviews and reliable customer service. | |
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02-21-21 10:06pm - 1399 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
I remember back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I was in junior high, that you could buy a hamburger sandwich for $0.10. Those days are long gone, of course. Dinosaurs no longer roam the Wild West (California, and the Pacific Ocean). And now a simple hamburger can set you back $5 or more. A simple chicken sandwich can cost $5 or more. We are living in an era of stagflation, where prices keep zooming, and money flows to the 1%. ----- ----- Burger King, Wendys ramp up the competition in the chicken sandwich wars Yahoo Finance Brooke DiPalma February 17, 2021, 8:25 AM Burger King (QSR) on Wednesday jumped into the widening chicken wars with a new hand-breaded sandwich -- just as McDonald's is expected to debut its own version, and on the same day Wendy's rolled out an update to its menu item. The battlefield for the hearts and stomachs of consumers is growing more fierce, with a clutch of fast food giants unveiling competitors for Popeye's wildly popular sandwich. As a result, Burger King is planning to release the item nationwide later this year, after a lengthy testing process that began in 2019. Ellie Doty, chief marketing officer of Burger King, North America, told Yahoo Finance in an interview that the company took its time in an effort to "get it right." She added: "For us, hand-breading is to chicken what flame-grilling is to burgers so we’ve been working to perfect this hand-breaded chicken sandwich since 2019 from operations to training procedures, we’re focused on getting it right for our guests.” The company's sandwich includes a white meat chicken breast that is breaded by hand, then served on potato bun with deli pickles, "signature sauce" and available "your way" both original or spicy. Meanwhile, the chicken sandwich war continues to heat up across the fast food industry, with Wendy's (WEN) unveiling a savory newcomer to its chicken sandwich lineup: the Jalapeño Popper Sandwich. The sandwich, available nationwide for a limited time, comes in three iterations: Classic, spicy and grilled. The classic version retails for $5.99, and is slathered with jalapeños and flavored cream cheese, along with three slices of bacon and cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. Along with the sandwich, the fast food chain also released a $6.79 fried chicken salad topped with creamy jalapeño ranch. Since the launch of Popeye's chicken sandwich, consumers have also seen competing versions at other fast food chains including KFC (YUM), Arby’s, Jimmy John’s, and McDonald’s (MCD), which is set to debut Feb. 24. Shares of Burger King's parent company, Restaurant Brand International (which is also behind the successful Popeyes's chicken sandwich), is down more than 12 percent from a year ago. Brooke DiPalma is a producer and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma. | |
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02-21-21 09:20pm - 1399 days | #7 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
When I read the article: https://www.thedailybeast.com/stop-liste...ars?via=twitter_page It seems that Pornhub is accused of a crime: allowing child porn and rape videos to be posted on their site. Separately, I agree with your statement: "They have lost their CC processor which granted is basically a stake through the heart of any porn business..." I'm not saying that Pornhub is a fair or benevolent company. But if it's a way for models to make money, then cutting Pornhub access to credit card companies is an attack on the ability of porn performers to make money. In spite of the fact that there are other sites/platforms that models can use. I remember back in the day (1970s, 1980s), when Penthouse and Playboy were still popular magazines, that convenience stores and magazine shops could not openly display those magazines, but had to hide them under the counter, and if a customer wanted to buy a copy, they had to know the store stocked the magazine, and ask specifically to buy the magazine. Cutting off Pornhub from credit card companies is a strong form of censorship, which I don't agree with. (Disclaimer: I'm not associated with porn, except as a consumer.) | |
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02-17-21 03:55pm - 1404 days | #3 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
It's not new that conservatives are attacking porn. They've done it for decades. Maybe they're getting smarter, by saying that instead of being against porn, all they want is to protect innocent women and children, so that's why porn should be made illegal and banned. Also, everyone knows that porn encourages men to molest innocent women and children, because normal men don't have the intelligence to distinguish between porn fantasies and real life. | |
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02-16-21 05:39am - 1405 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republican senator says the demonstration at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a peaceful demonstration in which only a few people died and everyone was having a great time. "It was like a party, which maybe got a little out of hand, but even the people who died died happy," says the Republican. They died for Trump, God's Chosen Leader of the Republican party. The only people who weren't having a great time were a few Democrats. And you know the Democrats. A bunch of party-poopers. ----- ----- Wisconsin GOP senator downplays attack on U.S. Capitol AOL Associated Press February 16, 2021, 1:31 AM MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin's Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson downplayed the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month, saying on conservative talk radio Monday that it “didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me.” Johnson's comments on WISN-AM in Milwaukee came after he voted Saturday to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. Johnson said in the interview that Trump's attorneys “eviscerated” legal arguments made by Democrats seeking to convict Trump for instigating the insurrection. Johnson is one of Trump's most ardent supporters. He is up for reelection in 2022 but hasn't said yet whether he will seek a third term. Johnson condemned the violence and five deaths during the Jan. 6 riot but said what happened was not an armed insurrection. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. “When you hear the word ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms?" Johnson said. "Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask — how many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired? I’m only aware of one, and I’ll defend that law enforcement officer for taking that shot. It was a tragedy, but I think there was only one. If that was a planned armed insurrection, man, you had really a bunch of idiots.” Law enforcement officials have said in court filings that guns, bombs and other weapons were found on people who stormed the Capitol, in their vehicles and elsewhere. The insurrectionists also used flag poles, stolen police shields, crutches, fire extinguishers, sticks and other objects to attack police officers and force entry into the Capitol. The Senate acquitted Trump of a charge of “incitement of insurrection” after House prosecutors laid out a case that he was an “inciter in chief” who unleashed a mob by stoking a monthslong campaign of spreading debunked conspiracy theories and false violent rhetoric that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Graphic videos played for senators at the trial showed rioters calling out menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and now-former Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the January certification process. “The racial slurs, the attack on police officers, the injuries, the loss of life, nobody condones that, we all condemn it,” Johnson said Monday. But he said Democrats were hypocrites for not speaking out following sometimes violent protests last summer in the wake of police violence against Black people, including in Kenosha after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot by a white officer. “We know who is talking to us and saying how important police officials are when their side is the one that’s been saying defund the police," Johnson said. "So you’re sitting in that trial, you’re listening to all this and you understand it’s just dripping with hypocrisy.” Wisconsin's other senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, voted to convict Trump. | |
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02-14-21 03:46pm - 1407 days | #3 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
I don't use mobile for porn. The screen is too small for me to view it properly. And I don't access the PU site on mobile. Same reason: small screen, and navigation is difficult compared to a desktop or laptop PC. | |
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02-11-21 09:25pm - 1409 days | #3 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Capitalism at work. Fake masks being sold. Some fakes are surprisingly effective. Other fakes are poor. ------ ------ Millions of counterfeit N95 masks distributed to health care workers in the U.S. NBC Universal Christina Jewett, Kaiser Health News and Eli Cahan February 11, 2021, 1:30 AM Thousands of counterfeit 3M respirators have slipped past U.S. investigators in recent months, making it to the cheeks and chins of health care workers and perplexing experts who say they're not vastly inferior to the real thing. N95 masks are prized for their ability to filter out 95 percent of the minuscule particles that can carry the coronavirus. Yet the fakes pouring into the country have fooled health care leaders from coast to coast. As many as 1.9 million counterfeit 3M masks made their way to about 40 hospitals in Washington state, according to the state hospital association, spurring officials to alert staff members and pull the masks off the shelf. The elite Cleveland Clinic recently acknowledged that, since November, it had inadvertently distributed 3M counterfeits to hospital staffers. A Minnesota hospital made a similar admission. Nurses at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, have been highly suspicious since November that the misshapen and odd-smelling "3M" masks they were given are knockoffs, their concerns fueled because mask lot numbers match those the company listed online as possible fakes. "People have been terrified for the last 2½ months," said Daniel Hayes, a nurse and union vice president at the hospital. "They felt like they were taking their lives in their hands, and they don't have anything else to wear." According to 3M, the leading U.S. producer of N95s, more than 10 million counterfeits have been seized since the pandemic began, and the company has fielded 10,500 queries about the authenticity of N95s. The company said in a Jan. 20 letter that its work in recent months led to the seizure of fake 3M masks "sold or offered to government agencies" in at least six states. After Kaiser Health News sent photos of the masks the New Jersey nurses had questioned, a 3M spokesperson referred to them as "the counterfeits you identified." Testing the fakes At KHN's request, ECRI, a nonprofit that helps health care providers assess the quality of medical technology, agreed to test the masks that sparked the New Jersey nurses' concern. Tests of a dozen masks showed that they filtered out 95 percent or more of the 0.3-micron particles they're expected to catch. ECRI engineering director Chris Lavanchy said several health care organizations across the U.S. have recently made similar requests for tests of apparently fake 3M masks that the company warned about. Lavanchy said the results have shown similarly high filtration levels but also higher breathing resistance than expected. He said such resistance can fatigue the person wearing the mask or cause the mask to lift off the face, letting in unfiltered air. "We're kind of scratching our heads trying to understand this situation, because it's not as black and white as I would have expected," Lavanchy said. "I've looked at other masks we knew were counterfeit, and they usually perform terribly." 3M spokesperson Jennifer Ehrlich said a critical feature of N95 masks, aside from filtration, is how well they fit. "Without a proper seal and fit, respirators are not filtering [properly] — gaps could allow air to enter," Ehrlich said by email. The materials management team for Hackensack Meridian Health, which owns the Jersey Shore hospital, is "working with an independent lab on validating the quality and compliance of specific lot numbers of 3M N95 respirators the company identified as potentially problematic," according to a company statement. When the Washington State Hospital Association purchased 300,000 N95s in December, it sent samples to hospital leaders, who said they appeared legitimate. "It's not like we just ordered them sight unseen," said Beth Zborowski, spokesperson for the association. "We had two major medical centers in Seattle ... look at the quality, straps, cut them open and decide 'this looks like it's the real deal' before they bought them." She said major hospital systems in the state bought more on their own, adding up to 1.9 million. Throughout the pandemic, workers have also been provided with Chinese-made KN95 masks — approved by U.S. regulators on an emergency basis — that turned out to be far less effective than billed. In April, the Food and Drug Administration, responding to dire shortages of high-quality masks for health care workers, opened the door to KN95s, which are supposed to offer the same level of protection as N95s. Image: Federal agents intercepted boxes of fake N95 masks (CBP) Image: Federal agents intercepted boxes of fake N95 masks (CBP) Yet, as months passed, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard University, MIT and ECRI discovered that KN95s didn't meet the high standard: 40 percent to 70 percent of the KN95s failed their tests, and some filtered out only 30 percent of the tiny particles. More than 3,400 front-line health care workers have died during the pandemic, KHN and The Guardian have found in the ongoing Lost on the Frontline project, and many families have raised concerns about inadequate protective gear. Yet the actual harm that any substandard or knockoff device presents remains difficult to assess. Researchers say it's unethical to conduct a study that involves giving health care workers a product they know is less protective than another when lives are at stake. And short of performing in-depth genome sequencing on each worker's viral strain, it's hard to know exactly how any person got sick. At the U.S. border, safeguarding the medical gear supply is a high priority, said Michael Rose, a section chief in the global trade division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His job for the past year has been to investigate a wide variety of Covid-19-related scams. Of all those cases, Rose said, the flood of fake 3M masks from China has been the most consistent. "It's definitely cat and mouse," Rose said. "Where we might get better" at intercepting counterfeits, "they can ship elsewhere, change the name of the company and keep going." Many investigations lead to seizures in the country's massive ports of entry, where enormous cargo ships and planes carry giant containers of goods. There, agents might spot a dead giveaway like a box just off a ship from Shenzhen, China, marked "3M" and "Made in the USA." "I'd like to say that makes it easier, and it does, but the sheer volume of them coming in — it's like a needle in a stack of needles," he said. The demand for highly protective masks has surged twelvefold during the pandemic, said Chaun Powell, vice president of disaster response for Premier, a major hospital supply company. The national medical use of N95s used to be about 25 million a year, but it soared to 300 million last year, he said. That meant hospitals and other health care providers couldn't rely on their usual sources of products to meet their need for personal protective gear. Health care providers "had to find alternatives," Powell said, "and that created opportunities for fraudulent manufacturers to be opportunistic and sneak in." Many of Rose's investigations originate from customer complaints about apparent fakes to 3M, which forwards reports to his team. Others come from hospitals, health care systems or eagle-eyed first responders who email Covid19fraud@dhs.gov. Border Patrol agents, working with Rose's team and anticipating shipments from known counterfeiters, have seized thousands of fake N95s in recent weeks, including 100,080 at a port of entry near El Paso, Texas, in December and 144,000 flown from Hong Kong to New York. In all, federal officials say, they have seized more than 14.5 million masks, many of them fake 3Ms, along with other counterfeit cloth or surgical masks. Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak In New Jersey, staff members began complaining in November about their masks to union leaders at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, said Kendra McCann, president of the hospital's Health Professionals and Allied Employees union local. The masks, which seemed flimsy and made some workers' faces burn, were turning up in every unit of the hospital. After a union member discovered a letter on the 3M website pinpointing the mask lots as potentially fake, managers began to remove the masks, but suspected fakes continued to turn up, McCann said. Hackensack Meridian Health said a daily call with hospital leaders includes "reminders to report any suspect PPE so that it can be removed immediately and evaluated." The episode added stress to caregivers who are terrified about getting infected and taking the virus into their homes. "Nurses are scared to death," McCann said in mid-January as the masks continued to pop up, "because they're not being provided with the proper PPE." | |
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02-10-21 07:09am - 1411 days | #2 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Florida town backs down before the powers of the Let's Make A Deal President. Although Trump signed an agreement that he would not be a permanent resident of his Palm Beach resort in exchange for permission to convert the resort from a residence into a club, his lawyers now say that Trump is the "mayor of the resort, and has earned the right to live there permanently. Also, Trump is hard at work while he lives there, and loves everyone he meets, and greets guests himself. Therefore, Trump deserves permanent residency, in spite of the prior agreement. God bless Donald Trump, a man of his word. And the mayor of Palm Beach agrees that Trump's prior agreement has loopholes, that permit the ex-president to be a permanent resident. Be careful when shaking hands with Donald Trump, that he doesn't grab your wallet when he lets go of your hand. ------ ------ Trump now the ‘mayor’ of Mar-a-Lago, lawyer claims in bid to let him live there HuffPost S.V. Date February 9, 2021, 3:54 PM Donald Trump’s new role as a hybrid property manager and social director at his Palm Beach resort essentially makes him a “bona fide employee” of Mar-a-Lago and qualifies him to live there, a lawyer for the former president argued Tuesday. “This guy, as he wanders the property, is like the mayor of the town of Mar-a-Lago, if you will,” John Marion told the Palm Beach, Florida, Town Council. “He’s always present, he’s ever-present. And he loves it there. And he loves the people that he sees there.” Trump has been living in the four-room, two-bath “owner’s suite” in the 126-room estate since leaving the White House last month, despite promising in 1993 that he would not if the town let him convert it from a residence into a members-only tennis and pool club. Some neighbors and others in the town had complained that Trump was violating his agreement. Reginald Stambaugh, a lawyer representing next-door neighbors, said the town should enforce the terms of the deal by revoking the special use permit for the club and turning it back into a residence. “And then the former president and his family could live there,” he said. Philip Johnston, a lawyer representing the group Preserve Palm Beach, said that Trump’s residence clearly violates the agreement and that Trump basing his post-presidential office there will bring problems for the town. “We feel that this issue threatens to make Mar-a-Lago into a permanent beacon to his more rabid, lawless supporters,” Johnston said. But Marion pointed to the town’s zoning rules, which permit a business to serve as a residence for some employees who need to be there. He said Trump does everything from evaluating employees’ performance to attending events held there to greeting guests to suggesting improvements to the club’s operation to recommending candidates for membership. The council took no formal action Tuesday and did not offer any indication on whether it might. Council President Maggie Zeidman, however, cited Town Attorney John Randolph’s concurrence with Marion’s opinion on the zoning rule exception. “It appears to me that Mr. Trump … has met the criteria for bona fide employee, and it seems that there is nothing therefore that would prohibit him from living in the owner’s suite at Mar-a-Lago,” she said. A moving truck is parked at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Jan. 18, two days before Joe Biden's inauguration. (Photo: Terry Renna/ASSOCIATED PRESS) A moving truck is parked at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Jan. 18, two days before Joe Biden's inauguration. (Photo: Terry Renna/ASSOCIATED PRESS) Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985 as a winter residence but by 1993, facing financial woes because of his mismanagement of his Atlantic City casinos, found he could not afford the upkeep on the aging mansion. He sought and received special permission from the town to convert it into a for-profit social club. One condition of that zoning exception, however, was that Mar-a-Lago could not be turned into a hotel, and the Town Council limited stays to no longer than seven straight days no more than three times a year. Trump’s lawyer at the time promised that Trump would abide by that rule, just like any other member. But Trump began reneging on that promise almost immediately, according to those familiar with his habits in those years. During his presidency, Trump broke the seven-day limit in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and the three-visit limit in all four years of his presidency. Marion, Trump’s West Palm Beach lawyer handling this issue, actually cited his repeated breaking of his promise through the years as a reason he should not be held to it now. “It has always been the case, before and after the execution of the Agreement in 1993, that President Trump has resided in the owner’s suite when at MAL, a use which has been far in excess of three visits per year and has never been challenged,” he wrote in a letter to Randolph on Jan. 28. Trump could, if he wanted, avoid the dispute altogether by living at any of the three houses he owns in the immediate vicinity. Homes of 6,000 and 3,000 square feet are immediately adjacent to Mar-a-Lago, while a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home is across Highway A1A, abutting Mar-a-Lago’s beach club. But Marion in his presentation to the Town Council said this would be far worse for residents on the road immediately to the north of Mar-a-Lago, some of whom are represented by Stambaugh, as it would mean all cars turning onto the street would have to be inspected and there would be a constant Secret Service presence. “It would be a horrible imposition for them if they got what they wanted,” Marion said. The Mar-a-Lago property, which occupies several square blocks between Lake Worth lagoon and A1A, has its own private entrances for cars, and all the roadblocks and barriers that had been erected during Trump’s presidency have been removed. | |
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02-09-21 06:35am - 1412 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
They are talking of sterilization, taking away the native right of reproduction. Hippos, like humans, enjoy making babies. And the cruel scientists are saying: Stop having fun, to these massive beasts. ----- ----- Fear and love surround Escobar’s hippos thriving in Colombia By REGINA GARCIA CANO and FERNANDO VERGARA26 minutes ago A hippo warning stands on the shore of a lagoon near Doral, Colombia, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. The offspring of hippos illegally imported to Colombia by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the 1980s are flourishing in the lush area and experts are warning about the dangers of the growing numbers. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia (AP) — Tucked between mountain ranges, the sprawling palace of Pablo Escobar was home to kangaroos, giraffes, elephants and other exotic animals — a private zoo of illegally imported animals that was the greatest ostentation of the feared drug kingpin as he reigned over the cocaine trade in Colombia. Escobar and his Medellin Cartel are long dead, but one of the zoo’s prized specimens is flourishing in the tropical countryside and wetlands in and around the palace-turned-theme park — the hippopotamus. Like the man who introduced them to this country after obtaining them from a U.S. zoo, they are a source of endless controversy. Government attempts to control their reproduction have had no real impact on population growth, with the number of hippos increasing in the last eight years from 35 to somewhere between 65 and 80. A group of scientists is now warning that the hippos pose a major threat to the area’s biodiversity and could lead to deadly encounters between the huge animals and humans. They say hippo numbers could reach around 1,500 by 2035 if nothing is done. They say the animals need to be culled. “I believe that it is one of the greatest challenges of invasive species in the world,” said Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez, an ecologist at the University of Quintana Roo in Mexico and lead author of the group’s study. The idea of culling the herd has already drawn some criticism and is likely to see more. There was an outcry years ago when three hippos wandered from the Escobar compound and were causing problems and one was killed by hunters sent after the animals. The humans in this rural area have embraced the hippos as their own, in part because of the tourist dollars they bring in. For outsiders, it can be a puzzling bond, considering the aggressive animals kill more people per year in Africa than any other wildlife species. Here, elementary school students are used to walking past a sign that reads “Danger — hippopotamus present.” But the experts say the government’s attempt to keep down numbers by sterilizing some hippos just isn’t enough. “Everyone asks, ‘Why is this happening?’ Well, imagine a town of 50 people and you perform a vasectomy on one man and in two years on another man, obviously, that is not going to control the reproduction of the entire population,” Castelblanco-Martínez said. The scientists began working on the hippo population forecast last year after one of the animals chased and severely injured a poor farmer. Their study was published in the journal Biological Conservation in January. Another study last year by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found the hippos are changing the quality of the water in which they spend much of their time and defecate. As their population continues to grow, they could end up displacing native animals like the Antillean manatees, Castelblanco-Martinez said. Escobar in the 1980s arranged for three female hippos and one male to be brought to his 5,500-acre (2,225-hectare) estate, Hacienda Napoles. After his death in a shootout with authorities in 1993, most of the exotic animals were relocated or died. But the hippos were abandoned at the estate due to the cost and logistical issues associated with transporting 3-ton animals and the violence that plagued the area at the time. The hippos thrive in the fertile region lying between Medellin and Colombia’s capital, Bogota. They live in the area around the Rio Magdalena — the Mississippi River of Colombia — spending the day mostly in the lakes and waterways and the night roaming endless grass pastures. Unlike in their native Africa, they have no natural predators in Colombia. “About 10 years ago, we realized that we have a giant population of hippopotamuses. We began to learn how the population was constituted, to see if there was an immediate solution,” said David Echeverri-Lopez, a researcher at the regional environmental agency that oversees the hippos. “We really began to realize the dimensions of the problem.” While Echeverri agreed that culling the hippos would be the best solution, he said the animals’ magnetic personality and government regulation may never allow it. After the public criticism erupted more than a decade ago over the killing of the hippo by hunters, touched off by a photo showing soldiers posing with the hippo as a hunting trophy, the government instituted a ban on hunting hippos. It decided to try sterilization, but that is a complex and expensive process. First, an animal must be tricked into entering a huge metal corral to be sedated. Then a team of wildlife experts must spend about three hours cutting through the animal’s thick skin and then try to find its reproductive organs, which is not easy. “The community keeps an eye on us to make sure that we are actually sterilizing (the hippo) and not doing anything else,” said Gina Serna-Trujillo, a veterinarian who has conducted some of the sterilizations. “They love them.” Serna said each procedure can cost around $8,500 — a steep price for the regional environmental agency that oversees the animals. She said a documentary’s production sponsored the cost of one procedure in 2019 and another film will do the same this year. No procedures were conducted in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Echeverri said the agency has conducted 10 sterilizations and relocated four juvenile hippos to Colombian zoos. Zoos in other countries have shown interest, but bureaucratic red tape has gotten in the way. This year, the agency hopes to be able to start carrying out a type of chemical sterilization that has worked on pigs. Castelblanco understands the appeal of hippos, even describing a baby hippo as “the most beautiful thing in the world,” but said the discussions over their future in Colombia should not be ruled by warm feelings the animals generate. “We have other invasive species in Colombia that have undergone normal protocols, and no one ever makes a fuss because they are fishing lionfish,” she said referring to a fish native to the Indo-Pacific that is now an invasive species in the Atlantic Ocean. “You can’t even talk about (culling hippos) because the rejection is staggering. ... I am being called a murderer.” | |
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02-07-21 08:28am - 1414 days | #34 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
LUSTWEEK.COM From the same people who bring you the Wow Porn sites (Wow Girls, Wow Porn, All Fine Girls), which are already listed at PU. | |
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02-07-21 05:54am - 1414 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Wonderful news: You can get re-infected with covid more than once. So if you were infected, or get the vaccine, it doesn't automatically give you a free pass. Living in the new world where the covid is here. ----- ----- Covid reinfections may be 'much more common' than realized NBC Universal JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News February 7, 2021, 6:00 AM Kaitlyn Romoser first caught Covid-19 in March, likely on a trip to Denmark and Sweden, just as the scope of the pandemic was becoming clear. Romoser, who is 23 and a laboratory researcher in College Station, Texas, tested positive and had a few days of mild, coldlike symptoms. In the weeks that followed, she bounced back to what felt like a full recovery. She even got another test, which was negative, in order to join a study as one of the earliest donors of convalescent blood plasma in a bid to help others. Six months later, in September, Romoser got sick again, after a trip to Florida with her dad. This second bout was much worse. She lost her sense of taste and smell and suffered lingering headaches and fatigue. She tested positive for Covid-19 once more — along with her cat. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Romoser believes it was a clear case of reinfection, rather than some mysterious reemergence of the original infection gone dormant. Because the coronavirus, like other viruses, regularly mutates as it multiplies and spreads through a community, a new infection would bear a different genetic fingerprint. But because neither lab had saved her testing samples for genetic sequencing, there was no way to confirm her suspicion. “It would be nice to have proof,” said Romoser. “I’ve literally been straight up called a liar, because people don’t want to believe that it’s possible to be reinfected. Why would I lie about being sick?” As millions of Americans struggle to recover from Covid-19 and millions more scramble for the protection offered by vaccines, U.S. health officials may be overlooking an unsettling subgroup of survivors: those who get infected more than once. Identifying how common reinfection is among people who contracted Covid-19 — as well as how quickly they become vulnerable and why — carries important implications for our understanding of immunity and the nation’s efforts to devise an effective vaccination program. Scientists have confirmed that reinfections after initial illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus are possible, but so far have characterized them as rare. Fewer than 50 cases have been substantiated worldwide, according to a global reinfection tracker. Just five have been substantiated in the U.S., including two detected in California in late January. That sounds like a rather insignificant number. But scientists’ understanding of reinfection has been constrained by the limited number of U.S. labs that retain Covid-19 testing samples or perform genetic sequencing. A KHN review of surveillance efforts finds that many U.S. states aren’t rigorously tracking or investigating suspected cases of reinfection. KHN sent queries about reinfection surveillance to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Of 24 responses, fewer than half provided details about suspected or confirmed reinfection cases. Where officials said they’re actively monitoring for reinfection, they have found far more potential cases than previously anticipated. In Washington state, for instance, health officials are investigating nearly 700 cases that meet the criteria for possible reinfection, with three dozen awaiting genetic sequencing and just one case confirmed. In Colorado, officials estimate that possible reinfections make up just 0.1 percent of positive coronavirus cases. But with more than 396,000 cases reported, that means nearly 400 people may have been infected more than once. In Minnesota, officials have investigated more than 150 cases of suspected reinfection, but they lack the genetic material to confirm a diagnosis, a spokesperson said. In Nevada, where the first U.S. case of Covid-19 reinfection was identified last summer, Mark Pandori, director of the state public health lab, said there’s no doubt cases are going undetected. “I predict that we are missing cases of reinfection,” he said. “They are very difficult to ascertain, so you need specialized teams to do that work, or a core lab.” AdChoices Such cases are different from instances of so-called long-haul Covid-19, in which the original infection triggers debilitating symptoms that linger for months and viral particles can continue to be detected. Reinfection occurs when a person is infected with Covid-19, clears that strain and is infected again with a different strain, raising concerns about sustained immunity from the disease. Such reinfections occur regularly with four other coronaviruses that circulate among humans, causing common colds. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines call for investigating for possible reinfection when someone tests positive for Covid-19 at least 90 days after an original infection (or at least 45 days for “highly suspicious” cases). Confirmation of reinfection requires genetic sequencing of paired samples from each episode to tell whether the genomes involved are different. Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak But the U.S. lacks the capacity for robust genetic sequencing, the process that identifies the fingerprint of a specific virus so it can be compared with other strains. Jeff Zients, head of the federal Covid task force, noted late last month that the U.S. ranks 43rd in the world in genomic sequencing. To date, only a fraction of positive coronavirus samples has been sequenced, though the Biden administration is working to rapidly expand the effort. On Feb. 1, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters that sequencing has “increased tenfold” in recent weeks, from 251 sequences the week of Jan. 10 to 2,238 the week of Jan. 24. The agency is working with private companies, states and academic labs to ramp up to 6,000 sequences per week by mid-February. Washington’s state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, Dr. Scott Lindquist, said officials have prioritized genetic sequencing at the state laboratory, with plans to begin genotyping 5 percent of all samples collected. That will allow officials to sort through those nearly 700 potential reinfections, Lindquist said. More important, the effort will also help signal the presence of significantly mutated forms of the coronavirus, known as variants, that could affect how easily the virus spreads and, perhaps, how sick Covid-19 makes people. “Those two areas, reinfection and variants, may cross paths,” he said. “We wanted to be in front of it, not behind it.” How long does immunity last? The specter of reinfections complicates one of the central questions of the Covid-19 threat: How long after natural infection or vaccination will people remain immune? Early studies suggested immunity would be short-lived, only a few months, while more recent research finds that certain antibodies and memory cells may persist in Covid-infected patients longer than eight months. “We actually don’t know” the marker that would signal immunity, said Dr. Jason Goldman, an infectious diseases expert at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. “We don’t have the test you could perform to say yes or no, you could be infected.” Goldman and colleagues confirmed a case of reinfection in a Seattle man last fall, and since then have identified six or seven probable cases. “This is a much more common scenario than is being recognized,” he said. The possibility of reinfection means that even patients who’ve had Covid-19 need to remain vigilant about curbing re-exposure, said Dr. Edgar Sanchez, an infectious diseases physician at Orlando Health in Florida. “A lot of patients ask, ‘How long do I have to worry about getting Covid again?’” he said. “I literally tell them this: ‘You are probably safe for a few weeks, maybe even up to a couple of months, but beyond that, it’s really unclear.’” The message is similar for the wider society, said Dr. Bill Messer, an expert in viral genetics at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, who has been pondering the cultural psychology of the Covid-19 response. Evidence suggests there may not be a clear-cut return to normal. “The idea that we will end this pandemic by beating this coronavirus, I don’t think that’s actually the way it’s going to happen,” he said. “I think that it’s more likely that we’re going to learn how to be comfortable living with this new virus circulating among us.” | |
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02-07-21 05:45am - 1414 days | #4 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Be true to your school. It doesn't matter if Trump is a Nazi, a criminal, a liar, or shits over people he doesn't like. If you're a Republican, you have to the support the man, no matter what he does. Republicans are loyal. They might be brain-dead, they might be assholes. But they support the Party. ------ ------ Wyoming GOP censures Rep. Liz Cheney over impeachment vote AOL Associated Press February 7, 2021, 7:46 AM RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Saturday to censure U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Only eight of the 74-member state GOP's central committee stood to oppose censure in a vote that didn't proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to impeach even though the U.S. House didn't offer Trump “formal hearing or due process.” “We need to honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call for a peaceful assembly and protest for a fair and audited election," said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne attorney who lost to Cheney in the Republican U.S. House primary in 2016. “The Republican Party needs to put her on notice." Added Joey Correnti, GOP chairman in Carbon County where the censure vote was held: "Does the voice of the people matter and if it does, does it only matter at the ballot box?” Cheney has said repeatedly she voted her conscience in backing impeachment for the riot, which followed a rally where Trump encouraged supporters to get rid of lawmakers who “aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.” Far from leading a peaceful demonstration, Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," Cheney said in a statement ahead of the Jan. 13 impeachment vote. In a statement after the state GOP vote, Cheney said she remained honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight for issues that matter most to the state. “Foremost among these is the defense of our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. My vote to impeach was compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution,” Cheney said. Republican officials said they invited Cheney but she didn’t attend. An empty chair labeled “Representative Cheney” sat at the front of the meeting room. The censure vote was the latest blowback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the U.S. House in voting to impeach. Just three months after winning a third term with almost 70%, Cheney already faces at least two Republican primary opponents in 2022. They include Republican state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a gun-rights activist from Cheyenne, who was at the meeting but not among those who spoke. Smith also has said he is deliberating whether to run for Congress again. On Jan. 28, Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, of Florida, led a rally against Cheney in front of the Wyoming Capitol. About 1,000 people took part, many of them carrying signs calling for Cheney's impeachment though several were supportive. Cheney will remain as the third-ranking member of the House GOP leadership, however, after a 145-61 vote by House Republicans on Wednesday to keep her as conference committee chair. Trump faces trial in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday over allegedly inciting insurrection when a mob of supporters stormed into and rampaged through the Capitol after the nearby rally led by Trump and close allies. Censure opponents mainly came from Casper, Wyoming’s second-largest city, and the Jackson Hole area near Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. “Let’s resist this infusion of left-wing cancel culture to try to censure and get rid of anybody we disagree with,” said Alexander Muromcew with the Teton County GOP. Momentum for censure had been growing for weeks as local Republicans in around a dozen of Wyoming's 23 counties passed their own resolutions criticizing her impeachment vote. | |
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02-06-21 05:08pm - 1415 days | #3 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
President Trump resigns from the Screen Actors Guild. Says he is too important to associate with Hollywood actors who can't act. Also, he resigns before they take away his SAG card. Which means he can't vote on SAG elections, and loses other privileges. Kicking a man when he is down: is this the end of the Trump legacy, where he will fight to make America Great Again? ------ ------ SAG-AFTRA speaks on Trump's union resignation: 'Members were just fine with his decision' Yahoo Finance Alexandra Canal February 6, 2021, 5:37 AM Former President Donald Trump announced his resignation from The Screen Actors Guild on Thursday, following a disciplinary probe over his role in January’s deadly attack on the Capitol. “I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!” Trump wrote in a fiery resignation letter to SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris. His resignation means he can no longer enjoy SAG-AFTRA benefits, which include voting on employment and government structure of the union — in addition to other unique privileges such as movie screeners during award season and more. “While I'm not familiar with your work, I'm very proud of my work on movies such as 'Home Alone 2,' 'Zoolander' and 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'; and television shows including 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' 'Saturday Night Live,' and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, 'The Apprentice' — to name just a few!” the letter continued. In response, SAG-AGTRA had just two words for the former commander-in-chief: “Thank you.” National Executive Director David White told Yahoo Finance during a recent interview that the terse response “is all we really had to say.” Former President Donald Trump announced his resignation from The Screen Actors Guild on Thursday following a disciplinary probe over his role in the deadly Capitol riot attacks on January 6th. “We actually expected him to show up [to the disciplinary hearing] but I think the members were just fine with his decision to no longer be a part of this family,” White said. Tinseltown’s move to penalize the former president comes as the Senate is poised to deliberate on Trump’s impeachment beginning next week. White added that SAG faced pressure to revoke Trump’s membership even prior to January 6th’s attacks — with current union members arguing that his actions did not reflect “the integrity and values of the membership. It had nothing to do with his politics,” White explained. Hollywood is notoriously left-leaning, but White stressed that the union is a non-partisan organization that was once under the leadership of former Republican President Ronald Reagan. The 40th U.S. Commander in Chief served as SAG-president from 1947-1952, and then again from 1959-1960. “We had a number of members call with lots of concern about Mr. Trump’s actions as a candidate when he was calling the media ‘fake news,’ calling upon people to take action against journalists,” White explained. “And we know for a fact that, prior to his election as a president, then as president and even after being president, that his words incited actual violence and harm against members of this union, along with many others,” he continued. Legally, Trump can still appear in movies and TV shows despite the resignation, yet White suggested that union representation in Hollywood is often paramount. “This industry is one that respects labor relations and respects the collective activities of unions quite a bit, so most producers do look to see whether or not the person is a member of the union in their hiring decisions,” White explained. Alexandra Canal is a producer & entertainment correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193. | |
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02-06-21 04:49pm - 1415 days | #2 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The rich are different: They feel they don't have to follow the same rules that peons have to obey. Metal detectors, that the public has to pass through: The rules don't apply to Republicans, who are too important to follow those rules. So the Democrats passed a rule that people (Republicans) who refuse to go through metal detectors can be hit with a $5,000 fine. Must be nice to have so much money you can pay $5,000 because you're too special to follow the same rules ordinary people have to follow. But Republicans are smarter than ordinary people: they have read crime stories, and know how to hide guns and evade searches for weapons. One congressman boasted he read "The Godfather", and knew about hiding guns in the restroom. This was a Republican, of course: a Democrat would be too stupid to know about hiding a gun in a restroom. So, like Al Pacino, who blew away a corrupt police captain and a Mafia leader, Republicans demand the right to carry guns to protect not only themselves but anyone who needs protecting, and to hell with the laws that say they can't carry weapons. -------- -------- Reps. Louie Gohmert, Andrew Clyde hit with $5,000 fines for dodging metal detectors HuffPost Mary Papenfuss February 6, 2021, 6:47 AM Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) were each fined $5,000 on Friday for refusing to go through a metal detector before entering the House chamber. A fine for another infraction could be as much as $10,000 each. The penalties will automatically be deducted from their salaries if they lose any appeals and refuse to pay. Gohmert said in a statement Friday later that he’ll be “appealing the fine and taking whatever action is necessary, especially considering this policy is unconstitutional.” That may come as a surprise to Americans with less lofty positions who have been required to go through metal detectors for years. The GOP lawmakers were the first to be fined for refusing to cooperate with the new security measure passed by the House on Tuesday following the violent storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters last month. Five people died during the insurrection. Gohmert complained in his statement that Democrats were “making up the rules as they go.” Gohmert, who had skirted the detectors in previous days, explained that he initially went through the screening to enter the chamber. But then he left to use a restroom off of the Speaker’s lobby and did not go through the metal detector again when he returned. Gohmert disdainfully quipped on Twitter that “unlike in The Godfather, there are no toilets with tanks where one could hide a gun in the restroom in the Speaker’s Lobby off the floor. Re-entry onto the floor ... should have been a non-issue,” he added. If Gohmert, however, were a gun-carrying lawmaker, presumably an aide could provide him with a firearm after he left the chamber and he could explain later that he had simply been in the restroom. Clyde could not immediately be reached for an explanation about his situation. Critics, including some constituents, responded on Twitter that Gohmert should follow metal detector rules like everyone else on the planet. | |
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02-03-21 10:38pm - 1417 days | #2 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
I'm surprised more cities aren't passing laws against porn, both literary fiction and video porn. I assume there are millions of people in the US who would vote to criminalize porn. And under Trump's US Supreme Court, I would imagine that the Supreme Court would look favorably on restricting porn: fiction and photos and videos. Just my thoughts, without any hardcore facts to back me up. And it's not just the Supreme Court. Trump packed the federal judicial system with conservative judges. That was one of his most important goals while in office. | |
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02-01-21 05:56am - 1420 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
If a cop wants to pepper spray a 9-year-old-girl, the cop has the right and authority to act in self defense. Also, shots fired in the back of a suspect, while the suspect is running away, are legal: a cop has the right of self-defense, more than a civilian does. Cops are the law: stand up for Cops, who defend you from thugs and other people of the lower classes. And if the pepper spray did not work to subdue the girl, they should have tasered her. And if that didn't work, they should have emptied a clip of .44 Magnum bullets into the suspect, because she was acting badly. Being 9 years old does not excuse you from obeying the orders of a cop. Power to the people. And to the cops! ------ ------ Police pepper spray 9-year-old girl in New York NBC Universal Tim Stelloh February 1, 2021, 5:21 AM Authorities in Rochester, New York, are investigating a confrontation captured on video that shows police pepper spraying a 9-year-old girl while responding to a report of “family trouble,” officials said Sunday. Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said she directed Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan to investigate last Friday's incident, and the city’s police accountability board also will review what happened. “This is not something that any of us should want to justify,” Warren said, adding that she saw “her baby’s face” when she looked at the 9-year-old girl. Police were called after a report that the girl was threatening to harm herself and her mother, Deputy Chief Andre Anderson told reporters. When officers tried to move the girl into a police car to take her to a hospital, she resisted, kicking one of the officers, Anderson said. Body camera video released by the police department Sunday shows authorities handcuffing the girl while she repeatedly screams for her father and refuses to get in the vehicle. “You’re acting like a child,” one of the officers says at one point. “I am a child,” she can be heard responding. In the video, officers can be heard saying that they would pepper spray her if she continued to resist. When an officer did, Anderson said, the “effects of that didn’t work.” It isn't clear what happened before or after the video, which was edited by police, though Anderson said the girl was eventually taken to Rochester General Hospital and released. The officers in the video have not been identified and additional details about the incident weren’t immediately available. A message left with the Rochester Police Department requesting an incident report wasn’t returned Sunday night. The city's police union also did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in comments cited by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, union president Mike Mazzeo said the officer made a decision to subdue the girl and acted in a way that didn't injure her. "I'm not saying there are not better ways to do things," Mazzeo told the newspaper. "But let's be realistic about what we're facing. ... It's not TV, it's not Hollywood. We don't have a simple (situation), where we can put out our hands and have somebody be instantly handcuffed and comply." The confrontation comes less than a year after Daniel Prude, 41, died while being restrained by Rochester police with a “spit hood” over his head. The police department’s chief and entire command staff resigned after Prude’s death, and the city enacted law enforcement reforms, including moving crisis intervention from the purview of police. The city launched a “person in crisis” response team earlier this month, but it didn’t respond to Friday's confrontation because the initial 911 call didn't warrant it, Warren said. “There were a number of events happening at once at this location, all of which required a police response,” she said. She added that the city aims to provide a joint response between police and the crisis team to “improve how we protect our community.” | |
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02-01-21 04:51am - 1420 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
I am posting a reply made by PinkPanther because I think it needs special attention, instead of being lost in the reply section of a comment. The reply was made on 01-30-21. PinkPanther MUCH more than 1/2 the site(Digital Playground) was deleted in the past TWO MONTHs. I did a review of this site on Nov 2, 2020 and I reported 4,278 scenes on the site. The site currently shows 1,340 scenes. So they have deleted almost 3,000 scenes from the site. I've got this site as an add-on so I've got no reason to go anywhere. But I wouldn't recommend joining this site to anyone sane. This is the same bull-shit that I reported them having done with Twisty's and with Babes.com. ----- ----- So anyone joining Babes, Digital Playground, or Twistys, be aware that a massive amount of content from those sites has recently been deleted. | |
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02-01-21 03:24am - 1420 days | #12 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
President Trump, in exile, will move to Burma to lead the nation to greatness. All white people moving to Burma will receive a bonus of $50,0000 to improve the racial genetics of the population. This is dependent on white males fathering at least 10 children, and white women birthing at least 10 children. Soon, the population of Burma will become like white bread, lifting the country to the greatness of white people everywhere. God bless Donald Trump, the whitest President of the Untied States we've ever had. ------ ------ Myanmar military seizes power, detains Aung San Suu Kyi Reuters January 31, 2021, 11:27 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. (Reuters) - Myanmar's military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids. The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to "election fraud", handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station. A verified Facebook page for Suu Kyi's party published comments it said had been written in anticipation of a coup and which quoted her as saying people should protest against the military takeover. The coup derails years of Western-backed efforts to establish democracy in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where neighboring China also has a powerful influence. The generals made their move hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the NLD's landslide win in a Nov. 8 election viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi's fledgling democratic rule. Phone and internet connections in the capital Naypyitaw and the main commercial centre of Yangon were disrupted and state TV went off air after the NLD leaders were detained. Suu Kyi, Myanmar President Win Myint and other NLD leaders were "taken" in the early hours of the morning, NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters by phone. Reuters was subsequently unable to contact him. A video posted to Facebook by one MP appeared to show the arrest of another, regional lawmaker Pa Pa Han. In the video, her husband pleads with men in military garb standing outside the gate. A young child can be seen clinging to his chest and wailing. Troops took up positions in Yangon where residents rushed to markets to stock up on supplies and others lined up at ATMs to withdraw cash. Banks subsequently suspended services due to poor internet connections. The detentions came after days of escalating tension between the civilian government and the military in the aftermath of the election. Suu Kyi's party won 83% of the vote in only the second election since a military junta agreed to share power in 2011. The pre-written statement uploaded on a NLD Facebook page quoted Suu Kyi as saying such army actions would put Myanmar "back under a dictatorship". "I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military," it quoted her as saying. Reuters was unable to reach any NLD officials to confirm the veracity of the statement. Some pro-military supporters celebrated the coup, parading through Yangon in pickup trucks and waving national flags but pro-democracy activists were horrified. "Our country was a bird that was just learning to fly. Now the army broke our wings,” said student activist Si Thu Tun. INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the arrests, while the U.S. embassy in Yangon issued an alert warning U.S. citizens there of the "potential for civil and political unrest". AdChoices "The United States stands with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy, freedom, peace, and development. The military must reverse these actions immediately," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the detention of political leaders and urged the military to "respect the will of the people," a U.N. spokesman said. The Australian government said it was "deeply concerned at reports the Myanmar military is once again seeking to seize control of Myanmar". India, Malaysia and Singapore also expressed concern, while major aid donor Japan said it was watching the situation. LEAD-UP TO COUP Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, 75, came to power after a 2015 election win that followed decades of house arrest and struggle against the junta that made her an international icon. While still hugely popular at home, her international reputation was damaged after she failed to stop the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from western Rakhine state in 2017. Rohingya refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh also condemned the move. "We Rohingya community strongly condemn this heinous attempt to kill democracy," Rohingya leader Dil Mohammed told Reuters by phone. "We urge the global community to come forward and restore democracy at any cost." Military chief Min Aung Hlaing raised the prospect of repealing the constitution in response to election irregularities as tensions soared last week. The vote faced some criticism in the West for disenfranchising some ethnic groups including Rohingya, but Myanmar's election commission has rejected the military's allegations of vote fraud. In its statement declaring the state of emergency, the military cited the failure of the electoral commission to address complaints over voter lists, its refusal to agree to a request to postpone new parliamentary sessions and protests by groups unhappy over the election. "Unless this problem is resolved, it will obstruct the path to democracy and it must therefore be resolved according to the law," the statement said, citing an emergency provision in the constitution in the event national sovereignty is threatened. Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama, who fostered close ties with Suu Kyi, described the military takeover as a severe blow to democracy in the region. "It’s yet another reminder that the extended absence of credible and steady U.S. engagement in the region has emboldened anti-democratic forces," he said. Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy director, John Sifton, criticized the initial White House response as “disappointingly weak” and urged a more concerted international reaction. “The U.S. needs to work with allies to speak more clearly, in unison, in terms of ultimatums, to put the Myanmar military on notice of the specific consequences that will occur if their coup is not reversed," he said. (Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Lincoln Feast) | |
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01-30-21 11:37am - 1422 days | #4 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
If you advertised your video at the PU site, you might get a few sales. Maybe enough to pay for a new porn site. LOL. But you need to video in color, and some PU members require 4K for their high-end monitors. If the video is impressive, it might bring some life to the PU site. | |
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01-30-21 03:49am - 1422 days | #11 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
How can Trump be a racist if he doesn't have a racist bone in his body? And how can one of Trump's lawyers be a racist if the lawyer doesn't have a racist bone in his body? Enquiring minds want to know: Did Trump and his lawyer have their racist bones surgically removed, allowing them to discriminate against Blacks in a non-discriminotory way? Trump, leader of the Nazi Party to make America White Again. Donate to Trump, and he can have your Black neighbors shipped back to Africa, where they belong. -------- -------- Trump Impeachment Lawyer Removed A Black Juror He Said ‘Shucked And Jived’ HuffPost Ryan J. Reilly January 29, 2021, 9:33 AM One of the attorneys on former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial team previously used racial stereotypes to kick Black citizens off a jury, including saying one of them “shucked and jived” in court, HuffPost has learned. The attorney, Greg Harris, is one of four South Carolina attorneys who make up the “core” of Trump’s impeachment team. Harris confirmed his hiring to The Associated Press on Thursday. Harris will defend a former president who regularly appealed to racists and inspired a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob that included a significant contingent of outright white supremacists. Back in 1989, the South Carolina Supreme Court found that Harris had used racial stereotypes to strike two Black jurors during a DUI trial while he served as an assistant solicitor in South Carolina’s 5th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office. The South Carolina Supreme Court ruling doesn’t explicitly name Harris, but HuffPost confirmed he is the prosecutor in question. Philip Mace, the attorney for the Black female defendant in the DUI case, told HuffPost that over the course of two trials, Harris used nine out of 10 of his strikes against Black potential jurors. “When I challenged him on it, Greg said he didn’t have a racist or [discriminatory] bone in his body. I remember that,” Mace said. Harris did not respond to an email or a message left at his law firm. Trump’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the case, Harris struck a 43-year-old Black juror he claimed walked slow, talked low and was somewhat aged. In another, Harris told the trial judge he struck another potential juror because he was unemployed and “seemed disinterested” during jury selection. But he also added in a racial stereotype. “I watched him as he walked from the jury panel to the microphone and I have noted that he ― he shucked and jived is what I had. That’s just my analysis of the way he walked up here,” Harris told the court. The trial judge initially found that Harris’ use of a racial stereotype did not indicate a pattern of racial discrimination, and that Harris had articulated racially neutral reasons for striking jurors. The South Carolina Supreme Court disagreed. While unemployment had been held up as a race-neutral explanation to strike a juror, as had demeanor in many jurisdictions, the South Carolina Supreme Court called Harris’ use of a racial stereotype “troublesome” and evidence of intentional discrimination. “The trial court failed to inquire into or comment on the prosecutor’s explanation that the juror was struck because he ‘shucked and jived.’ The use of this racial stereotype is evidence of the prosecutor’s subjective intent to discriminate,” the court ruled in 1989. The South Carolina decision came three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986 that jury selection procedures that “purposefully exclude black persons from juries undermine public confidence in the fairness of our system of justice.” The Supreme Court said that prosecutors needed to present a race-neutral explanation of their jury strikes if defendants make an equal protection claim based on discriminatory use of peremptory challenges, which are the limited number of objections that attorneys can make about proposed jurors without needing to give a reason. Mace said the state Supreme Court ruling was a “great decision” that resulted in a “sea change” in South Carolina, which, like America, has a violent history of racism and white supremacy. “It was not a difficult argument to make,” Mace said. “I came out of it with a little paper certificate from the ACLU, and Greg got a promotion to assistant United States attorney.” Indeed, Harris went on to work as a federal prosecutor in South Carolina. The 59-year-old is the former chairman of the South Carolina Ethics Commission, and “has been involved in a number of high profile cases and clients” including working an an expert witness for former Gov. Nikki Haley, The State reported. Mace said that Harris is a “pretty competent lawyer.” He was less kind to former South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon, who was reportedly approached about joining Trump’s team but declined. “Charlie, as attorney general, all he did was push to keep the Confederate flag flying over the [state Capitol] dome and to keep women out of The Citadel [military college],” Mace said. “I’d bring Rudy [Giuliani] back before I’d employ Charlie Condon as my attorney.” (Condon did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.) Mace said Harris is “probably very, very conservative,” but nevertheless said Harris might be a lawyer he’d consider hiring if he were in serious criminal trouble. “But I’m a white guy,” he added. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. | |
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01-28-21 06:30am - 1424 days | #10 | |
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Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Some people say Wyoming is the most Republican state of the union. And Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives (which is part of Congress) is learning that one must be true to one's school. You can't vote with your conscience. You must follow party lines. Or else, people will get mad. Wyoming is having a GOP civil war. The natives are at at war with each other. Will they support Donald Trump, the glorious ex-leader of the Untied States? Or will they support Joe Biden, the Democrat from Hell? (All Democrats are from Hell, they just don't know it.) Enquiring minds want to know: A vote for Biden is a vote to shame our Nation, one Nation under God, indivisible, with just and liberty for all White Republicans, and to hell with the dirty Democrats... ----- ----- In Wyoming, Cheney faces blowback for vote to impeach Trump AOL Associated Press MEAD GRUVER January 28, 2021, 4:50 AM CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — When Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, decided to vote to impeach a president from her own party, she knew she'd cause some waves. She might not have expected the seismic impact at home. But Cheney's vote against Donald Trump has put her home state of Wyoming — by some measures the most Republican state in the country — on the front lines of the GOP civil war. The rising GOP leader and daughter of a former vice president is now facing the prospect of censure from the state party, a primary challenge and the wrath of Trump and his loyalists vowing to make her pay. On Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, an ardent Trump ally from Florida, will stage a rally in Cheyenne at the Capitol, taking the fight to oust Cheney from her leadership post to her home turf and calling on “patriots” to turn out. House Republicans are expected to decide next week whether to strip Cheney of her job as House conference chair. Cheney's fate at home and in Washington will be one indicator of whether GOP traditionalists or Trump-aligned activists determine the direction of the party. Her troubles have already served as a warning for Republicans in the Senate, most of whom signaled Tuesday they would vote to acquit Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection. Meanwhile, Trump’s political action committee, Save America, is using a poll it commissioned on Cheney’s popularity with Wyoming voters to taunt her — and show other Republicans what may lie ahead when they don’t support Trump. Cheney's defenders have sought to cast the blowback from her vote as ginned up by attention-seekers. “Wyoming doesn’t like it when outsiders come into our state and try to tell us what to do,” said Amy Edmonds, a former Cheney staffer and past state legislator, pointedly at Gaetz. But there’s little doubt the lawmaker in her third term is facing homegrown opposition in a state where the establishment’s once-firm grip has been slipping. Republican state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a gun rights activist, announced his primary challenge against Cheney one week after her impeachment vote, making a clear effort to rally Trump fans. “The swamp was after me,” Bouchard said of his recent reelection to the statehouse despite being badly outspent by a Democrat. “I just don’t think that works any more in Wyoming. I think the people have figured it out.” To be sure, Bouchard, who is little known outside the Cheyenne area, has a steep climb ahead. He is a relative political newcomer who raised just $12,000 for his last race. (Cheney amassed $2.5 million.) He says he may show up at the rally Thursday, one way to start raising his profile. Other Republicans are likely to jump in during the coming months. Still, few imagined Cheney would draw a challenger after winning the state's only congressional seat with a majority close to Trump’s — 70%, more than any other state. Cheney spent the last four years dancing around Trump. She largely dodged questions about his racist comments and hard-line immigration moves, while occasionally criticizing his foreign policy. She called his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria “sickening." When Trump began urging lawmakers to reject the Electoral College vote, she wrote a memo warning of a "tyranny of Congress.” But Cheney, whose father held her seat for 10 years and who was raised in part in the Washington suburbs, described Trump's actions on Jan. 6 as a breaking point. Trump called on supporters to “fight” to overturn his election loss, in a speech shortly before rioters stormed the Capitol in an insurrection that led to five deaths. Notably, Trump called Cheney out by name in his speech, telling his backers they should work to get rid of the lawmakers who “aren't any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.” Cheney says she voted her conscience without regard for political consequences. "It was something that I did with a heavy heart, but I did with a real understanding of the seriousness and the gravity of the moment," Cheney said the day of the vote. “My oath to the Constitution is one I can’t walk away from, is one I can't violate.” She has since sought to marshal the state's sizable Republican establishment in her defense. Aides have circulated approving editorials and letters to the editor, and long lists of supporters. Those backers include Gov. Mark Gordon, Sen. John Barrasso and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who was one of just eight senators to vote against certifying Electoral College results in battleground states in the riot’s aftermath. Cheney also has the support of two influential state interest groups: the Petroleum Association of Wyoming and Wyoming Mining Association. That backing may be crucial as Wyoming prepares to fight new regulations from President Joe Biden’s administration that could hurt the struggling oil, gas and coal industries that are a pillar of the state’s economy. “Intraparty fighting and blind obsession with retribution for perceived slights are not going to bring back one single job,” said Matt Micheli, a Cheney ally and former state GOP chair. But in Wyoming, as in many states, the divide between traditional GOP interests and Trump-aligned, far-right activists is wide. Local Republican Party officials in three of Wyoming’s 23 counties have voted to censure Cheney for her impeachment vote. In a fourth, Republicans at an informal meet-and-greet Monday held an unofficial straw poll ahead of plans for a formal censure vote. “Based on what I saw last night, whew, it’s going to be overwhelmingly anti-Liz Cheney,” said Bob Rule, a radio station owner and GOP precinct committee member in western Wyoming's sparsely populated Sublette County, a gas-drilling hotspot. “They felt she used her own personal feelings about the situation and not the feelings of the people of Wyoming.” Several of the three dozen or so people at the meet-and-greet in the town of Marbleton, population 1,400, were newcomers there out of opposition to Cheney’s vote, Rule added. The Republican State Central Committee could take up censuring Cheney when it meets in early February, though state GOP Chair Frank Eathorne declined to speculate whether it would happen. Plenty of voters are suddenly receptive to the idea of not just politically dinging Cheney but also giving her the boot. “I made a mistake voting for her,” said Misty Shassetz, 43, a grocery store employee in Casper. “This is Trump country, you know, that’s who we voted for. What she did was wrong. I just feel like the voters need somebody who actually speaks for the voters,” Shassetz said. “And she is not it.” Cheney has some time to try to win back voters like Shassetz, notes Don Warfield, a retired public relations consultant. “If people are still as angry in the summer of 2022 as they are now, Liz Cheney faces some real problems,” Warfield said. | |
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01-27-21 07:18am - 1425 days | #8 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans vote against Trump impeachment trial. Republicans state that Donald Trump was only using his God-given right to incite his followers to armed insurrection. Trump could legally be charged with murder, since 5 people died from the recent U.S. Capital riot. Therefore, anyone who participated in the riot, or encouraged the riot, could be charged with murder. But Republicans believe that Trump is innocent, since Trump was anointed by God Himself as President of the Untied States. Glory be to Trump, Chief Nazi of the Untied States. The senators took oaths Tuesday to ensure “impartial justice” as jurors in the trial. Which means most of the senators could be sued for hypocrisy. Or does it mean that being a politician gives you a free pass for lying under oath? ------ ------ GOP largely votes against holding Trump impeachment trial AOL Associated Press LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK January 26, 2021, 2:13 PM WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Tuesday against moving forward with Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, making clear a conviction of the former president for “incitement of insurrection” is unlikely. In a 55-45 procedural vote, the Senate set aside an objection from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul that would have declared the impeachment proceedings unconstitutional. That means the trial on Trump's impeachment, the first ever of a former president, will begin as scheduled the week of Feb. 8. The House impeached him two weeks ago for inciting deadly riots in the Capitol on Jan. 6 when he told his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat. Yet the support of 45 Republicans for declaring the trial invalid indicates that there are long odds for Trump's conviction, which would require the support of all Democrats and 17 Republicans, or two-thirds of the Senate. While most Republicans criticized Trump shortly after the attack, many of them have rushed to defend him in the trial, showing the former president's enduring sway over the GOP. “If more than 34 Republicans vote against the constitutionality of the proceeding, the whole thing’s dead on arrival,” Paul said shortly before the vote." Paul said Democrats “probably should rest their case and present no case at all.” The senators took oaths Tuesday to ensure “impartial justice” as jurors in the trial, proceedings that will test Republican loyalty to the former president for the first time after the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol. Many Republican senators, including Paul, have challenged the legitimacy of the trial and questioned whether Trump's repeated demands to overturn Joe Biden’s election really constitute “incitement of insurrection." So what seemed for some Democrats like an open-and-shut case that played out for the world on live television is running into a Republican Party that feels very different. Not only are there legal concerns, but senators are wary of crossing the former president and his legions of followers. Security remains tight at the Capitol. On Monday, the nine House Democrats prosecuting the case against Trump carried the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol in a solemn and ceremonial march along the same halls the rioters ransacked three weeks ago. The lead House prosecutor, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, stood before the Senate to describe the violent events of Jan. 6 — five people died — and read the House resolution charging “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Republicans came to Trump's legal defense. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked if Congress starts holding impeachment trials of former officials, what's next: “Could we go back and try President Obama?” Besides, he suggested, Trump has already been held to account. “One way in our system you get punished is losing an election.” For Democrats the tone, tenor and length of the trial so early in Biden's presidency poses its own challenge, forcing them to strike a balance between their vow to hold Trump accountable and their eagerness to deliver on the new administration's priorities following their sweep of control of the House, Senate and White House. Chief Justice John Roberts is not presiding at the trial, as he did during Trump’s first impeachment, potentially affecting the gravitas of the proceedings. The shift is said to be in keeping with protocol because Trump is no longer in office. Instead, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., who serves in the largely ceremonial role of Senate president pro tempore, was sworn in on Tuesday. Leaders in both parties agreed to a short delay in the proceedings, which serves their political and practical interests, even as National Guard troops remain at the Capitol because of security threats to lawmakers ahead of the trial. The start date gives Trump’s new legal team time to prepare its case, while also providing more than a month's distance from the passions of the bloody riot. For the Democratic-led Senate, the intervening weeks provide prime time to confirm some of Biden’s key Cabinet nominees. As Republicans said the trial is not legitimate, Democrats rejected that argument, pointing to an 1876 impeachment of a secretary of war who had already resigned and to opinions by many legal scholars. Democrats also say that a reckoning of the first invasion of the Capitol since the War of 1812, perpetrated by rioters egged on by a president as Electoral College votes were being tallied, is necessary. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said failing to conduct the trial would amount to a “get-out-jail-free card” for others accused of wrongdoing on their way out the door. He said there’s only one question “senators of both parties will have to answer before God and their own conscience: Is former President Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection against the United States?” A few GOP senators have agreed with Democrats, though not close to the number that will be needed to convict Trump. | |
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01-27-21 06:17am - 1425 days | #7 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Donald Trump is a man of his word. That is why he has teams of lawyers to speak for him. ---- ---- Palm Beach Conducting ‘Legal Review’ Of Trump’s Use Of Mar-A-Lago As A Residence HuffPost January 26, 2021, 3:43 PM The town of Palm Beach, Florida, is reviewing Donald Trump’s use of his Mar-a-Lago Club as a residence, even as the former president is set to once again violate a length-of-stay provision he himself agreed to three decades ago. At 11:32 a.m. Wednesday, Trump will have been at his property for more than seven consecutive days in 2021, having arrived a week earlier, half an hour before his successor, Joe Biden, was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol. A 1993 “special exception use” permit that Trump signed, allowing him to convert the mansion into a for-profit social club, stipulated that only 10 guest accommodations were allowed, and that no one would stay there longer than seven days, and not more than three times a year. Palm Beach Mayor Kirk Blouin told HuffPost that Trump’s apparent decision to live there permanently is being examined by the town’s lawyer. “This matter is under legal review by our Town Attorney, John ‘Skip’ Randolph,” Blouin said, adding that the matter may come before the town council at its Feb. 8 meeting. Randolph confirmed that he is reviewing the issue, but said he has not made any preliminary findings. The Trump Organization ― Trump’s family business that operates Mar-a-Lago, his golf courses, his hotels and his various other properties ― said in a statement: “There is absolutely no document or agreement in place that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-a-Lago as his residence.” The twice-impeached former president bought the winter estate in 1985. By 1993, facing financial problems after driving his casinos into bankruptcy, he was having trouble affording the upkeep on the 118-room mansion. The town agreed to let him convert it into a social club so long as Trump agreed to a host of restrictions, one of which was not to let it become a hotel or subdivided residences. “The use of guest suites shall be limited to a maximum of three (3) non-consecutive seven (7) day periods by any one member during the year,” the Aug. 10, 1993, agreement reads. Yet even before he became president, Trump was routinely violating that promise, according to his former lawyer Michael Cohen ― who served federal prison time for, among other things, arranging secret hush money payments just ahead of the 2016 election to women who’d had affairs with Trump. AdChoices “He cannot reside in Mar-a-Lago as a full-time permanent resident,” Cohen said Tuesday. “Now, he can go there every day. It’s his club.” Nevertheless, Trump violated the seven-day limit three times during his four years in office, according to a HuffPost review of his travel schedule. In 2020, Trump had an eight-day stay there. In 2019, he had a 16-day stay, and in 2017, a 10-day stay. It is unclear how the three-visit limit was meant to be interpreted, but Trump visited 10 times in 2017 for a total of 31 nights, eight times in 2018 for 24 nights, eight times in 2019 for 31 nights, and five times in 2020, staying 20 nights. Precisely why Trump insists on living at Mar-a-Lago in violation of his agreement is also unclear. He owns three houses in the immediate proximity of the resort: a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home at 1125 South Ocean Blvd., just north of Mar-a-Lago’s beach club, which he bought from his sister Maryanne Trump Barry in 2018 for $18.5 million; a 6,000-square-foot house across the street at 1094 South Ocean Blvd., worth $10.4 million; and a 3,000-square-foot house just to its west at 124 Woodbridge Road, worth $3.3 million. According to his 2020 financial disclosure, Trump was earning rental income from all three properties. | |
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01-27-21 06:09am - 1425 days | #5 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Off Topic: I would have thought a lot of the vinyl records might have been worth money. Selling them on ebay or whatever. It would have been better (and probably difficult) to try to get an estimate of the value of each record. But vinyl records have come back into fashion. From google: The average eBay selling price for vinyl records is around $15, though vinyl record values vary significantly: from 50 cents to $50 or more. You need to do some research to determine exactly how much your vinyl records are worth. Here are some highly-valuable vinyl records. RECORD: VALUE (up to) Hear the Beatles Tell All: $30,000 I know that value and estimates can vary. And "experts" can give widely differing estimates for collectibles. A coin shop can give you an estimate, for example, of a one ounce platinum coin of maybe $1,200 or less, based on its melt value, but you might see the same coin listed on ebay for $32,000. I'm not saying coin shops are crooks, but they can give you low-ball figures when you try to sell them a collectible coin. | |
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01-27-21 05:21am - 1425 days | #3 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Very sharp LOL. The reason I remember Andrew Jackson was president was because of the pop song "Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton, released in 1959, when I was still a teenager. The song was a catchy tune that is still enjoyable. Here is the song on YouTube, the version I heard on the radio. At the time, I didn't have a record player, and didn't have any money to buy records, anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjXM6x_0KZk | |
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01-26-21 08:38am - 1426 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Our great president, Andrew Jackson, is being thrown on the trash heap. No longer will he appear on the $20 bill. Instead, Harriet Tubman, who was never elected President of the United States, will replace Jackson. It's important that our money reflect history, says the Biden administration. But what about the Battle of New Orleans? Shouldn't we honor the US defeat of Britain, which proved American superiority over those English soldiers? Enquiring minds want to know: Is Biden a secret pacifist, who will lay down like a coward before foreign enemies? ------ ------ 01-25-215:31 pm Harriet Tubman will finally replace Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill “It’s important that our money reflect the history and diversity of our country,” President Biden’s press secretary said. Nearly five years after an initiative to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the face of the $20 bill was introduced, White House press secretary Jen Psaki informed reporters in a briefing Monday that the Biden administration is “exploring ways to speed up the process” that was stopped during President Trump’s tenure. Replacing Andrew Jackson on the bill caused an explosion of tweets when it was announced in April 2016. The proposed redesign was made public in 2019 and was supposed to have been put into circulation last year on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. However, Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, halted the process because he believed that adding security features on the money was more important than changing the face on the bill, adding that the redesign wouldn’t be in circulation until 2028. According to a New York Times report, Psaki said, “The Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the new $20 notes. It’s important that our money reflect the history and diversity of our country.” | |
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01-25-21 07:32pm - 1427 days | #6 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Update on Donald Trump. Even though Donald Trump, the glorious, has left the White House, he's left behind fond memories of his stay. The Democrats have decided to wish the Donald well, with a going-away present: A second impeachment. No other president of the Untied States was ever given such an honor. However, the Republican party is still standing behind Trump, and will almost certainly fail to convict our beloved Trump. -------- -------- House delivers article of impeachment against Trump to Senate. Here's what happens next. Yahoo News Dylan Stableford January 25, 2021, 12:58 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. House Democrats on Monday night delivered to the Senate the article of impeachment charging former President Donald Trump with inciting the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In doing so, they began the process leading to Trump’s second impeachment trial. A conviction in the Senate would be mostly symbolic at this point, since Trump is no longer president, but it could lead to a separate resolution that would bar him from holding elected office again. At 7 p.m. ET on Monday, nine House Democrats who will serve as prosecutors in the upcoming trial made the ceremonial walk through the Capitol building to the Senate chamber to deliver the article of impeachment charging “former President Donald John Trump” with “incitement of insurrection.” The impeachment managers appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Joe Neguse, D-Colo., David Cicilline, D-R.I., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., and Stacey Plaskett, D-U.S. Virgin Islands. Raskin, who is serving as the lead impeachment manager, read the single article of impeachment against Trump on the Senate floor Monday night. What does the article of impeachment say? The article alleges that Trump’s actions before the deadly siege, including the fiery speech he gave at a rally falsely claiming that the election had been stolen, helped incite the riot, which left five people dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, and dozens of others injured. It reads in part: President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Donald Trump Then-President Trump at a rally protesting certification of the election results on Jan. 6. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) What happens next? All 100 U.S. senators will be sworn in as jurors on Tuesday, and a summons will be formally issued to Trump for his response, which will be due on Feb. 2. When do the impeachment hearings begin? Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said late last week that Trump’s trial would start the week of Feb. 8. In a timeline that was agreed to by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump would have until Feb. 8 to submit a pretrial brief, and House Democrats would have 24 hours to respond, meaning the trial could start as early as Feb. 9. How long will the trial take? That is hard to know. Trump’s first impeachment trial, held last year, took nearly three weeks, but there were two charges to consider then. Schumer said on Sunday that the second trial would be fairly quick. “Everyone wants to put this awful chapter in American history behind us. But sweeping it under the rug will not bring healing,” Schumer said. “I believe it will be a fair trial. But it will move relatively quickly and not take up too much time because we have so much else to do.” Who will preside over the trial? Chief Justice John Roberts presided over Trump’s first trial. But because Trump is out of office, the trial will be run by the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate (generally the longest-serving senator of the majority party), currently Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Who is on Trump’s defense team? The former president began to assemble his defense team last week, hiring South Carolina attorney Butch Bowers, who previously served as counsel to Nikki Haley and Mark Sanford, both former Republican governors of South Carolina. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he would not be able to represent the former president at the trial, citing his own speech at the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. What is his defense? Trump’s defense team is expected to argue that he was simply exercising his right to free speech, and that during his remarks he specifically called on his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard. Other Republicans have claimed that, under the Constitution, you can’t impeach and remove someone who’s no longer in office. But as NBC News pointed out, there is historical precedent for impeaching someone who formerly held federal office: In 1876, as the U.S. House of Representatives was about to vote on articles of impeachment against Secretary of War William Belknap over corruption charges, Belknap walked over to the White House, submitted his resignation letter to President Ulysses S. Grant and burst into tears. The House still went ahead and impeached Belknap, and the Senate tried him, with the impeachment managers arguing that departing office doesn’t excuse the alleged offense — otherwise, officeholders would simply resign to escape conviction or impeachment. And the Senate voted in 1876, by a 37-29 margin, that Belknap was eligible to be impeached and tried even though he resigned from office. Donald Trump Images of President Trump before his speech at the rally on Jan. 6. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images) What are the chances of a conviction? A conviction would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, meaning at least 17 Republicans would have to join all 50 Democrats. (If Trump is convicted, a separate resolution to prevent him from running for office again could pass by a simple majority.) In Trump’s trial last year, only one Republican senator, Mitt Romney of Utah, voted for conviction (on one of the two articles Trump was facing). Romney appears to be leaning the same way this time. “I believe that what is being alleged and what we saw, which is incitement to insurrection, is an impeachable offense,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “If not, what is?” The leader of Republicans in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, kept the rest of his caucus in line behind the president in the first trial. But he has had a falling out with Trump since the election, and said his members can vote their consciences this time and that he would wait to hear the evidence before deciding how to vote. Still, a growing number of senators have said they oppose even holding a trial, making the chances of a conviction slim. On “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the idea of having a trial in such a divisive political climate “stupid” and “counterproductive.” “We already have a flaming fire in this country,” Rubio said. “It’s like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire.” What does the American public think? A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed that a slim majority of Americans (51 percent) believe Trump should be convicted, and 55 percent said he should be barred from holding public office. The responses were almost entirely along party lines, with nine out of 10 Democrats and fewer than two in 10 Republicans favoring conviction. | |
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01-25-21 05:47pm - 1427 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Godzilla vs. Kong is scheduled to be released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max on March 26, 2021. The film was delayed several times, and was previously scheduled to be released in 2020 on March 13, May 22, May 29, November 20, and later pushed to May 21, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odM92ap8_c0 The reigning masters of Mixed Martial Arts are having a knock-down-drag-out fight. Who will be the last man standing? (Or is Godzilla really a female in heat, who is protecting her unborn children?) Fans will be able to cheer for their favorite kaiju monster when Godzilla vs. Kong is released in theaters and on HBO Max on March 26, 2021. The film was delayed several times, and was previously scheduled to be released in 2020 on March 13, May 22, May 29, November 20, and later pushed to May 21, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My heart is thumping for both these creatures, because my heart knows that both creatures have buried inside of them the instincts to protect mankind from itself. Godzilla has evolved over the ages: She now has trans-uranic powers and abilities far beyond anything mortal man can realize. Will Godzilla and King Kong ever learn to be friends? They both wish the best for humankind. Or will they fight for supremacy, because of the instinct that only one can rule the Earth? | |
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01-25-21 02:48am - 1427 days | #5 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
This is not right, or ethical. Florida Senator Marco Rubio was supposed to be a supporter of President Donald Trump, the bestest, most wonderfullest, bravest, most intelligent President of the Untied States we've ever known. Now Rubio is distancing himself from the Trump family. There are rumors that Ivanka Trump, our dearly departed Trump daughter, is going to run for Rubio's seat. Rubio should step down and allow Ivanka to assume the Florida Senator's place, on her way to the Presidency of the Untied States. Donald Trump made America great again. We need his daughter, Ivanka, to make America beautiful and shining once more. The only question I have: Will Ivanka need to move permanently to Florida to become a Florida senator? Or will she be allowed to stay in New York, where she and her husband have extensive real estate holdings? ------ ------ Florida Sen. Marco Rubio coy on possible challenge from Ivanka Trump NY Daily News Shant Shahrigian January 24, 2021, 10:17 AM Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was coy Sunday when asked about a possible 2022 primary challenge for his Florida seat from former President Trump’s daughter and senior adviser. “I don’t really get into the parlor games of Washington,” he said on “Fox News Sunday” about speculation Ivanka Trump is gunning for his job. “If you’re going to run for the Florida Senate, you’re going to have a tough race, including a primary. That’s their right under the system.” Rubio continued. The interview came amid widespread speculation about the Trump family’s post-White House plans. Ivanka Trump is working on a possible Senate run behind the scenes since she moved to Florida, according to Politico, citing unnamed former Trump officials. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was coy Sunday when asked about a possible 2022 primary challenge for his Florida seat from former President Trump’s daughter and senior adviser. The family is living at a luxury condo in Miami, according to CNN. Ivanka Trump visited Florida numerous times on the campaign trail to promote her father’s failed reelection bid, the news outlet noted. Meanwhile, Rubio, a staunch ally of the former president, may be in the Trump family’s bad graces for having voted to certify election results that formally placed President Biden in office. Steve Bannon, the Trump guru who got one of the ex-president’s last pardons, has reportedly been talking up Ivanka Trump’s political prospects. “The second most fire-breathing populist in the White House was Ivanka Trump,” Bannon said on a recent podcast, Politico noted. “I don’t own the Senate seat. It doesn’t belong to me,” Rubio said Sunday. “If I want to be back in the U.S Senate, I have to earn that every six years.” The ex-president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump is reportedly mulling a Senate run in North Carolina, while his son Donald Trump Jr. may also have aspirations for higher office. | |
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01-22-21 07:10pm - 1430 days | #2 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Vendo is a billing agent. I've had multiple accounts through them, never had a problem. Epoch and CCBill are more well known. Vendo is one of the billers the Wow sites use (Wow Girls, Wow Porn, All Fine Girls, Ultra Films, etc.). The last time I used Vendo was to sign up with Wow Girls on Nov 28, 2020. So they are still active. Vendo is dependable, to the best of my knowledge. I've never had a problem with them, and I've used them many times over the years. https://secure.vend-o.com/customers/profile/login/ The URL above is one of the ways to contact Vendo. I don't know what problems you're having, but maybe you can contact them by email. Famesupport is my favorite billing agent, because they have live chat, email and telephone support that is 24/7. Live chat is faster than email. And you get a written record of what is discussed. | |
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01-22-21 06:55pm - 1430 days | #4 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Rumors about Melania Trump and her pre-nup with Donald Trump. ----- ----- Melania Trump used White House move to renegotiate prenup, book claims This article is more than 7 months old First lady delayed moving from New York for five months Melania reportedly said aim was ‘taking care of Barron’ Guardian staff Fri 12 Jun 2020 10.34 EDT Last modified on Fri 12 Jun 2020 11.06 EDT Melania Trump delayed coming to the White House after her husband Donald Trump won the 2016 election because she was renegotiating her prenuptial agreement, a new book has claimed. Trump’s joke about Melania is just one of their many awkward moments The delay after Trump was inaugurated in early 2017 was officially explained as the first lady not wanting to interrupt the schooling of the couple’s son, Barron, in New York. It triggered a wave of media speculation that the couple’s marriage was strained and criticism of the high cost of providing security for Melania and Barron as they lived away from the White House. But a new book by the Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan, of which her newspaper obtained a pre-publication copy, claims another reason for the delay in Melania moving into the White House was a renegotiation of their pre-marital financial agreement. “Jordan reveals … that the first lady was also using her delayed arrival to the White House as leverage for renegotiating her prenuptial agreement with President Trump,” a news report in the Post said. “The incoming first lady needed time to cool off, and to amend her financial arrangement with Trump – what Melania referred to as ‘taking care of Barron’,” the report added. The book, called The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump, is based on more than a hundred interviews with people who know Melania from every stage of her life, from her childhood in Slovenia to her time in the White House. The portrait that reportedly emerges from its 286 pages is very different from the idea of Melania as a reluctant first lady. Far from being shy and retiring, she emerges as a force in her own right, backing her husband politically and determined to secure a place for Barron in the family business. “What emerges is a picture of personal ambition similar to Trump’s,” the Post wrote. | |
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01-21-21 03:14am - 1431 days | #2 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
The US death toll from the covid virus tops 400K. Biden is ashamed and pleads for a second chance. Trump was stopping the virus from attacking US citizens. Will Biden be able to stop the disease, like our hero, Donald Trump was able to? Enquiring minds want to know: Will Biden improve on Trump's record? Experts at the University of Washington project deaths will reach nearly 567,000 by May 1. Biden should have conceded defeat, and allowed Trump to continue his courageous battle against the covid disease. Then Americans would have been safe, and fewer people would have died. Now, Americans are trembling in their houses, knowing that death lurks for them. At the same time, many Americans realize the covid virus was a fake disease unleashed by the Democrats and the Chinese to help Biden steal the presidency away from Donald Trump. Biden and the Chinese, scheming to bring down the American dream. ------ ------ 'Shameful': U.S. virus deaths top 400K as Trump leaves office AOL Associated Press ADAM GELLER and JANIE HAR January 19, 2021, 12:28 PM As President Donald Trump entered the final year of his term last January, the U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Not to worry, Trump insisted, his administration had the virus “totally under control.” Now, in his final hours in office, after a year of presidential denials of reality and responsibility, the pandemic’s U.S. death toll has eclipsed 400,000. And the loss of lives is accelerating. “This is just one step on an ominous path of fatalities,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and one of many public health experts who contend the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis led to thousands of avoidable deaths. “Everything about how it’s been managed has been infused with incompetence and dishonesty, and we’re paying a heavy price,” he said. The 400,000-death toll, reported Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of New Orleans, Cleveland or Tampa, Florida. It's nearly equal to the number of American lives lost annually to strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia combined. With more than 4,000 deaths recorded on some recent days — the most since the pandemic began — the toll by week's end will probably surpass the number of Americans killed in World War II. “We need to follow the science and the 400,000th death is shameful,” said Cliff Daniels, chief strategy officer for Methodist Hospital of Southern California, near Los Angeles. With its morgue full, the hospital has parked a refrigerated truck outside to hold the bodies of COVID-19 victims until funeral homes can retrieve them. “It’s so incredibly, unimaginably sad that so many people have died that could have been avoided,” he said. The U.S. accounts for nearly 1 of every 5 virus deaths reported worldwide, far more than any other country despite its great wealth and medical resources. The coronavirus would almost certainly have posed a grave crisis for any president given its rapid spread and power to kill, experts on public health and government said. But Trump seemed to invest as much in battling public perceptions as he did in fighting the virus itself, repeatedly downplaying the threat and rejecting scientific expertise while fanning conflicts ignited by the outbreak. As president he was singularly positioned to counsel Americans. Instead, he used his pulpit to spout theories — refuted by doctors — that taking unproven medicines or even injecting household disinfectant might save people from the virus. The White House defended the administration this week. “We grieve every single life lost to this pandemic, and thanks to the president’s leadership, Operation Warp Speed has led to the development of multiple safe and effective vaccines in record time, something many said would never happen,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. With deaths spiraling in the New York City area last spring, Trump declared “war” on the virus. But he was slow to invoke the Defense Production Act to secure desperately needed medical equipment. Then he sought to avoid responsibility for shortfalls, saying that the federal government was “merely a backup” for governors and legislatures. “I think it is the first time in history that a president has declared a war and we have experienced a true national crisis and then dumped responsibility for it on the states,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care policy think tank. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tried to issue guidelines for reopening in May, Trump administration officials held them up and watered them down. As the months passed, Trump claimed he was smarter than the scientists and belittled experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top authority on infectious diseases. “Why would you bench the CDC, the greatest fighting force of infectious disease in the world? Why would you call Tony Fauci a disaster?” asked Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan. “It just doesn’t make sense.” As governors came under pressure to reopen state economies, Trump pushed them to move faster, asserting falsely that the virus was fading. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” he tweeted in April as angry protesters gathered at the state Capitol to oppose the Democratic governor’s stay-at-home restrictions. “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” In Republican-led states like Arizona that allowed businesses to reopen, hospitals and morgues filled with virus victims. “It led to the tragically sharp partisan divide we’ve seen in the country on COVID, and that has fundamental implications for where we are now, because it means the Biden administration can’t start over," Altman said. “They can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” In early October, when Trump himself contracted COVID-19, he ignored safety protocols, ordering up a motorcade so he could wave to supporters outside his hospital. Once released, he appeared on the White House balcony to take off his mask for the cameras, making light of health officials' pleas for people to cover their faces. “We’re rounding the corner,” Trump said of the battle with the virus during a debate with Joe Biden in late October. “It’s going away.” It isn’t. U.S. deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 100,000 in late May, then tripled by mid-December. Experts at the University of Washington project deaths will reach nearly 567,000 by May 1. More than 120,000 patients with the virus are in the hospital in the U.S., according to the COVID Tracking Project, twice the number who filled wards during previous peaks. On a single day last week, the U.S. recorded more than 4,400 deaths. While vaccine research funded by the administration as part of Warp Speed has proved successful, the campaign trumpeted by the White House to rapidly distribute and administer millions of shots has fallen well short of the early goals officials set. “Young people are dying, young people who have their whole lives ahead of them,” said Mawata Kamara, a nurse at California’s San Leandro Hospital who is furious over the surging COVID-19 cases that have overwhelmed health care workers. “We could have done so much more.” Many voters considered the federal government’s response to the pandemic a key factor in their vote: 39% said it was the single most important factor, and they overwhelmingly backed Biden over Trump, according to AP VoteCast. But millions of others stood with him. “Here you have a pandemic," said Eric Dezenhall, a Washington crisis management consultant, "yet you have a massive percent of the population that doesn’t believe it exists.” | |
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01-20-21 07:11am - 1432 days | Original Post - #1 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Tricky Joe Biden, the man who stole the presidency away from our beloved President Trump, is entering Washington with armed militia and taking over Washington. Never before has our Nation, Under God, been assaulted by the Democratic devils and submitted without a fight. We must remain strong and calm, and endure while Biden rules. And hold fast to our convictions that President Trump will return in glory to make America Great Again!!! God bless America. The land of the White, Free, and Republicans. Amen. | |
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01-18-21 12:23pm - 1434 days | #21 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Trump cronies reportedly cashing in as they lobby president for wealthy felon pardons HuffPost Mary Papenfuss January 17, 2021, 8:22 PM Donald Trump’s friends and allies are profiting from wealthy felons who are paying them to lobby the president for pardons, The New York Times revealed in a bombshell report Sunday. The “market” for pardons — which cuts out the poor and those not politically connected — reflects the “access peddling that has defined” Trump’s presidency, as well as his unorthodox use of his clemency powers to reward friends, the Times noted. Trump is expected to issue 100 pardons and sentence commutations on Tuesday, CNN reported. Presidential pardons are typically meted out in compassion to those who have more than served a just penalty, or who may have been too-harshly treated by the criminal justice system. Trump has used his power to reward those with powerful connections, as well as friends and allies — including those who may harbor damning evidence about his own behavior. The lucrative push for pardons has hit high gear just days before Trump is to leave office, according to the Times report, which was based on documents and interviews with more than three dozen lawyers and lobbyists. One lobbyist, Brett Tolman, a former federal prosecutor with ties to the White House, collected at least tens of thousands of dollars in the last weeks to push the White House for clemency for the son of a former Arkansas senator, the founder of the online drug marketplace Silk Road, and a Manhattan socialite, according to the Times. A former adviser to the Trump campaign was paid $50,000 to seek a pardon for former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was convicted of illegally leaking classified information, the newspaper reported. The adviser was to collect an additional $50,000 bonus if the president came through with the pardon, according to a copy of an agreement obtained by the Times. Kiriakou was also told that Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, could get a pardon for him for $2 million, the Times reported. Giuliani denied that claim. Trump has reportedly been considering granting preemptive pardons for his children, his son-in-law Jared Kushner (he already pardoned Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, for tax evasion), Giuliani — and even for himself. Officials are also fearful he could issue blanket pardons to his supporters who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6. An attorney for Jacob Anthony Chansley, the shirtless, horned, conspiracy theory-touting U.S. Capitol rioter, is calling for a pardon from Trump because he says his client was inspired by the president to take action. In a long list of shocking earlier decisions, Trump has already pardoned felons in his campaign or administration, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, and his one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone, whom the president pardoned after he was convicted of seven felonies, admitted he had information that could have hurt the president, and appeared to be holding out until he got his pardon. The president “knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him,” Stone told NBC journalist Howard Fineman earlier this year. “It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.” Those pardoned have also included war criminals and law enforcement officers who violated civil rights. | |
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01-18-21 12:56am - 1434 days | #20 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Previous post continued: Trump faces several legal challenges when he leaves the White House. There are two New York state inquiries into whether he misled tax authorities, banks or business partners. Also, two women alleging he sexually assaulted them are suing him. DESTROYING OR SAVING HISTORY Presidential records were considered a president's personal property until the Watergate scandal under President Richard Nixon prompted Congress in 1978 to pass the Presidential Records Act over worry that Nixon would destroy White House tape recordings that led to his resignation. After that, presidential records were no longer considered personal property but the property of the American people — if they are preserved. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to require audits of White House record-keeping and compliance with the law. “The American public should not have to wait until a president has left office to learn of problems with that president’s record-keeping practices," Weismann said. | |
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01-18-21 12:55am - 1434 days | #19 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Lock him up. Trump broke the law by destroying records. Put him in prison, along with Hilary Clinton. Maybe, as cell mates, they can learn to live together, and make America great again? ----- ----- Will Trump's mishandling of records leave a hole in history? AOL Associated Press DEB RIECHMANN January 17, 2021, 4:20 PM WASHINGTON (AP) — The public won’t see President Donald Trump’s White House records for years, but there’s growing concern the collection won’t be complete, leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies. Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House records workers to spend hours taping them back together. “They told him to stop doing it. He didn’t want to stop,” said Solomon Lartey, a former White House records analyst. He said the first document he taped back together was a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about a government shutdown. The president also confiscated an interpreter’s notes after Trump had a chat with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller. Top executive branch officials had to be reminded more than once not to conduct official business on private email or text messaging systems and to preserve it if they did. And now, Trump's baseless claim of widespread voter fraud, which postponed for weeks an acknowledgement of President-elect Joe Biden's victory, is delaying the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further heightening concern about the integrity of the records. “Historians are likely to suffer from far more holes than has been the norm,” said Richard Immerman at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. In the Trump White House, "not only has record-keeping not been a priority, but we have multiple examples of it seeking to conceal or destroy that record.” Lack of a complete record might also hinder any ongoing investigations of Trump, from his impeachment trial and other prospective federal inquiries to investigations in the state of New York. But even with requests by lawmakers and lawsuits by government transparency groups, there is an acknowledgment that noncompliance with the Presidential Records Act carries little consequence for Trump. In tossing out one suit last year, U.S. Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote that courts cannot “micromanage the president’s day-to-day compliance.” The Presidential Records Act states that a president cannot destroy records until he seeks the advice of the national archivist and notifies Congress. But the law doesn’t require him to heed the archivist's advice. It doesn't prevent the president from going ahead and destroying records. Most presidential records today are electronic. Records experts estimate that automatic backup computer systems capture a vast majority of the records, but cannot capture records that a White House chooses not to create or log into those systems. THE MOVE Moving a president’s trail of paper and electronic records is a laborious task. President Barack Obama left about 30 million pages of paper documents and some 250 terabytes of electronic records, including the equivalent of about 1.5 billion pages of emails. The records of past presidents are important because they can help a current president craft new policies and prevent mistakes from being repeated. “Presidential records tell our nation’s story from a unique perspective and are essential to an incoming administration in making informed decisions,” said Lee White, director of the National Coalition for History. “They are equally vital to historians." When Trump lost the November election, records staffers were in position to transfer electronic records, pack up the paper ones and move them to the National Archives by Jan. 20, as required by law. But Trump’s reluctance to concede has meant they will miss the deadline. “Necessary funding from the (White House) Office of Management and Budget was delayed for many weeks after the election, which has caused delays in arranging for the transfer of the Trump presidential records into the National Archives' custody,” the National Archives said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Even though the transfer of these records will not be completed until after Jan. 20, the National Archives will assume legal custody of them on Jan. 20 in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.” White House spokesman Judd Deere said Saturday that contesting the election did not cause the delay in getting the president’s records transferred to the archives and that guidance was available to staffers on how to pack up their materials. One person familiar with the transition said guidance typically emailed to executive branch employees explaining how to turn in equipment and pack up their offices was sent out in December, but quickly rescinded because Trump insisted on contesting the election. With little guidance, some staffers in the White House started quietly calling records workers to find out what to do. Departing employees are instructed to create a list of folders in each box and make a spreadsheet to give the National Archives a way to track and retrieve the information for the incoming Biden team. The process gets more complex with classified material. The Biden administration can request to see Trump records immediately, but the law says the public must wait five years before submitting Freedom of Information Act requests. Even then, Trump — like other presidents before him — is invoking specific restrictions to public access of his records for up to 12 years. Six restrictions outlined in the law include national security, confidential business information, confidential communications between the president and his advisers or among his advisers and personal information. RECORD-KEEPING PRACTICES Around Trump's first impeachment and on other sensitive issues, some normal workflow practices were bypassed, a second person familiar with the process said. Apparently worried about leaks, higher-ups and White House lawyers became more involved in deciding which materials were catalogued and scanned into White House computer networks where they are automatically saved, this person said. The individuals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss inner workings at the White House, said that if uncatalogued materials ended up in an office safe, for instance, they would at least be temporarily preserved. But if they were never catalogued in the first place, staffers would not know they existed, making such materials untraceable. White House staff quickly learned about Trump's disregard for documents as they witnessed him tearing them up and discarding them. “My director came up to me and said, ‘You have to tape these together,'” said Lartey, the former records analyst. Lartey said someone in the White House chief of staff's office told the president that the documents were considered presidential records and needed to be preserved by law. Lartey said about 10 records staffers ended up on Scotch tape duty at different times, starting with Trump’s first days in the White House through at least mid-2018. Trump's staff also engaged in questionable practices by using private emails and messaging apps. Former White House counsel Don McGahn in February 2017 sent a memo that instructed employees not to use nonofficial text messaging apps or private email accounts. If they did, he said, they had to take screenshots of the material and copy it into official email accounts, which are preserved. He sent the memo back out in September 2017. “It's an open question to me about how serious or conscientious any of those people have been about moving them over,” said Tom Blanton, who directs the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which was founded in 1985 to combat government secrecy. Trump was criticized for confiscating the notes of an interpreter who was with him in 2017 when the president talked with Putin in Hamburg, Germany. Lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to obtain the notes of another interpreter who was with Trump in 2018 when he met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. It's unclear whether the two presidents talked about Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Many people suspected the subject did come up because at a news conference afterward, Trump said he believed Putin when Putin denied Russian interference despite U.S. intelligence agencies finding the opposite. Several weeks ago, the National Security Archive, two historical associations and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued to prevent the Trump White House from destroying any electronic communications or records sent or received on nonofficial accounts, such as personal email or WhatsApp. They also alleged that the White House has already likely destroyed presidential materials. The court refused to issue a temporary restraining order after government lawyers told the judge that they had instructed the White House to notify all employees to preserve all electronic communications in their original format until the suit was settled. “I believe we will find that there’s going to be a huge hole in the historical record of this president because I think there’s probably been serious noncompliance of the Presidential Records Act," said Anne Weismann, one of the lawyers representing the groups in their suit. "I don’t think President Trump cares about his record and what it says. I think he probably cares, though, about what it might say about his criminal culpability.” | |
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01-17-21 03:01am - 1435 days | #18 | |
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Armed man arrested near Capitol with unauthorized inauguration pass, 500 rounds of ammo NBC Universal Dennis Romero and Suzanne Ciechalski January 16, 2021, 3:16 PM Scroll back up to restore default view. A Virginia man was arrested at a Washington checkpoint near the Capitol with an "unauthorized" inauguration pass, a gun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition, according to Capitol police. The suspect, identified as Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, was stopped at the checkpoint near Lower Senate Park about 6:30 p.m. Friday, an arrest report said. An unregistered gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found inside the truck that was adorned with gun decals days ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, according to Capitol Police. The man described the situation to the Washington Post as "an honest mistake." Beeler said he has been working as a security guard in downtown Washington, was running late and forgot that his gun was in the vehicle. He said he's licensed to carry in Virginia. He denied to the Post that he had all that ammunition. Beeler, of Front Royal, Virginia, allegedly presented an "unauthorized Inauguration credential" to a Capitol Police officer, authorities said. They did not describe what sort of document he showed that raised suspicion. The arrest comes after the violent Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol where supporters of President Donald Trump and his unfounded claims of election fraud stormed the building in a violent siege that left five people dead and many more injured. The suspect's Ford F-150 pickup displayed weapons-related stickers, including one that read, "Assault Life," and another that said, "If they come for your guns Give 'Em your bullets first," police said. Beeler allegedly declared that he had a Glock handgun under an armrest, and a subsequent search found nearly 550 rounds of ammunition, including a loaded magazine, clipped into the Glock, with 16 rounds, authorities said. An additional round was in the chamber of the handgun, they said. He was booked on suspicion of carrying a weapon without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, and possession of unregistered ammunition, according to police. News of the arrest Saturday came as protesters, some armed, descended outside state capitals, including in St. Paul, Minnesota and Austin, Texas. On Friday the Texas Department of Public Safety announced it was closing the state capitol and nearby grounds from Saturday through Wednesday. "The Texas Department of Public Safety is aware of armed protests planned at the Texas State Capitol this week and violent extremists who may seek to exploit constitutionally protected events to conduct criminal acts," public safety director Steven McCraw said in a statement. "As a result, DPS has deployed additional personnel and resources to the Capitol." States across the country have deployed National Guard troops to quell potential inauguration-related violence. The U.S. Postal Service said in a statement that blue collection boxes at several locations across the country "will be temporarily removed as a security measure to protect the mail and the public." The inauguration-related removals apply to select locations in 14 states, including Arkansas, Arizona and California, the service said. In Washington, D.C. the postal service is temporarily removing or locking boxes, closing some facilities and suspending delivery for much of next week. Boxes near the capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will be "taken out of service" Tuesday through Thursday, local postal officials said in a statement Saturday. In Sacramento, California, the California Highway Patrol was on tactical alert, which allows for longer shifts, in preparation for inauguration-related protests. On Friday Daniel Baker of Tallahassee, Florida, was arrested by the FBI authorities after allegedly issuing a "call to arms" for an armed confrontation at the Florida Capitol on Sunday. The region's federal public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "He specifically called for others to join him in encircling any protestors and confining them at the Capitol complex using firearms," the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Florida said in a statement. Police in Charleston, South Carolina, said Saturday they responded to minor vandalism, including putty placed on a door handle and lock, at the Charleston County Democratic Party Headquarters, authorities said. Investigators found flyers on scene that read, "the world is watching," and that had profanity about President-elect Joe Biden, police said. More than 100 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riot. A criminal complaint unearthed Saturday revealed details of federal allegations against Anthime Joseph Gionet, known on social media as "Baked Alaska." Allegations include "violent entry" and "disorderly conduct" at the Capitol. An affidavit states that Gionet livestreamed video of the Capitol invasion and said, "Unleash the Kraken, let's go," while he was inside the building. On Saturday the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee announced the Capitol riot-related arrest of Lisa Eisenhart. "Charges include conspiring with her son, Eric Munchel to violate federal statutes," the office tweeted. Biden is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday at the Capitol. | |
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01-15-21 11:13pm - 1436 days | #17 | |
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Arizona GOP wants to censure Cindy McCain over gay marriage, Biden support NBC Universal Jo Yurcaba January 14, 2021, 3:24 PM The Arizona Republican Party will vote on a measure to censure Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, on Jan. 23, in part because of her support for President-elect Joe Biden and for same-sex marriage. The proposal, which seeks to “dissolve any connections whatsoever” between McCain and the state GOP, says she “has supported leftist causes such as gay marriage, growth of the administrative state, and others that run counter to Republican values, a Republican form of government, and the U.S. Constitution.” It also states that McCain has failed to support conservative Republicans like President Donald Trump and has instead backed “globalist policies and candidates” like Biden. “Cindy McCain has condemned President Trump for his criticism of her husband and erroneously placed behaviors over actual presidential results,” the proposal states. Related: The “profound and notable transformation of cultural attitudes” toward LGBTQ people affected the court’s decision. McCain did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. She did tell Arizona Central on Tuesday, however, that she isn’t surprised “by the continuous insults and personal attacks from Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward.” Ward is a former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged John McCain in the Republican Senate primary in 2016. McCain went on to win his sixth term. He died two years later of brain cancer. “As chairman of the AZGOP she managed to turn Arizona blue in November for the first time since 1996,” Cindy McCain said of Ward. “Maybe she should be reminded that my husband never lost an Arizona election since his first win in 1982.” McCain then tweeted out the Arizona Central article, writing: “Future Republican candidates really have to question if the current party leadership represents their philosophy and values. Time for some soul searching in the Arizona GOP.” AdChoices The Arizona Republican Party’s proposed censure of McCain follows a similar proposal that Maricopa County Republicans debated during a committee meeting on Saturday. That resolution was originally aimed only at former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who endorsed Biden last year. During the meeting, state GOP official Walt Steiner suggested adding McCain to the censure proposal, and the crowd cheered in response, according to Arizona Central. The measure to censure Flake passed. But the state Republican Party later tweeted that Maricopa County couldn’t censure McCain because of a rule that prohibited amendments to resolutions on the floor. In addition to voting on the McCain censure proposal on Jan. 23, the state party is expected to re-elect Ward as chair, according to Arizona Central. Over a decade of LGBTQ support Cindy McCain has publicly supported same-sex marriage since 2010, when she posed for a photo for the NOH8 Campaign, a group that advocates gay marriage. Following his wife and daughter’s public support, John McCain issued a statement saying that while he respected his family’s views, he still opposed gay marriage. At the time, even President Barack Obama had not publicly backed marriage equality, which did not become legal across the U.S. until 2015. Less than a year after her initial NOH8 photo shoot, Cindy McCain appeared in a public service announcement for the group calling for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a federal policy that prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military. The policy was eventually repealed and officially ended in September 2011. In 2013, McCain petitioned her husband to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would have barred employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. John McCain ended up voting for the bill — one of only 10 senators to do so — but it didn’t pass. That same year, the senator opposed protections for LGBTQ people in immigration reform, but in an interview with Salon, his wife said he was slowly changing his mind on issues related to LGBTQ rights. "I think he's coming around," she said. "My husband and I have differed on many issues over the years. … I think down the line we'll see our country changing. … On this issue I know he believes what's right." | |
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01-15-21 11:03pm - 1436 days | #16 | |
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Ivanka Trump And Jared Kushner Raked In $36 Million Last Year While Serving In The White House POLITICS 08/01/2020 12:17 am ET Updated Aug 01, 2020 The first daughter and husband reportedly got an income bounce of at least $7 million over the previous year. By Mary Papenfuss President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, earned at least $36.2 million in outside income last year while serving as senior White House advisers, according to their latest financial filings, released Friday. That’s an apparent bump in a combined income of about $7 million over 2018′s reported $29 million, The Washington Post noted. Real estate and Trump Organization hotels accounted for much of the income. The income is reported only within very broad ranges, so the first daughter and Kushner actually reported income ranging from $36.2 million to $157 million, according to the Post’s analysis. They reported a combined income of at least $82 million in 2017. Though White House advisers typically divest from investments and companies, particularly when they could represent potential conflicts of interest, both Ivanka Trump and Kushner have retained multiple holdings. Kushner, for example, held on to a part ownership of his family-run real estate business, Kushner Cos., even though he gave up running the firm. Ivanka Trump reported earning $3.9 million from her stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington for the third year running. The first daughter was criticized last month for being outrageously out of touch when she suggested millions of Americans who have lost their jobs amid the COVID-19 crisis simply look elsewhere for work as part of her Find Something New Campaign. | |
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01-15-21 11:00pm - 1436 days | #15 | |
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Secret Service barred from Jared and Ivanka's bathrooms rented a toilet for $3,000 a month HuffPost Jeremy Blum January 14, 2021, 1:01 PM Secret Service agents assigned to protect Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were denied access to bathrooms in the couple’s house and had to rent a nearby basement for $3,000 a month simply to use the toilet, a surreal report by The Washington Post revealed on Thursday. Trump and Kushner’s six-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home is located in Washington, D.C.’s Kalorama neighborhood — where the Obamas and other elite political figures reside — and contains six bathrooms that were off-limits to the Secret Service detail assigned to protect the pair. According to the report, which cited neighbors and local law enforcement officials, agents were forced to resort to unorthodox measures simply to relieve themselves. They frequented nearby businesses, drove to Vice President Mike Pence’s home at D.C.’s Naval Observatory and used a bathroom in the Obamas’ nearby garage that had been converted into a Secret Service command area. Eventually, after a member of the team protecting Trump and Ivanka left an “unpleasant mess” in the Obama bathroom, they were banned from the garage. The home of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, in Washington, D.C.'s Kalorama district. (Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS via Getty Images) The home of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, in Washington, D.C.'s Kalorama district. (Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS via Getty Images) White House spokesman Judd Deere told The Washington Post that Trump and Kushner had never denied agents access to their bathrooms, and “it was only after a decision by the [Secret Service] was made that their detail sought other accommodations.” These alternate accommodations were found after a port-a-potty set up for the agents drew protests from Kalorama residents in 2017. From Sept. 27, 2017, onwards, they rented an 820-square-foot basement with a “tidy bathroom” from Kay Kendall, chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. At $3,000 a month in rent, the basement has cost $144,000 in taxpayer dollars thus far. AdChoices A number of voices across social media chimed in on the remarkable nature of the Post’s story — with several citing the similarities to the plot of the 2009 novel and 2011 film “The Help,” where a maid in Jackson, Mississippi, is fired for using the bathroom of her employers. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. | |
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01-15-21 10:06am - 1437 days | #14 | |
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The rich are different. They deserve to be first in line to get covid vaccines. Because they pay more taxes than most people. So, since they pay more taxes, they deserve better treatment, a better shot at life-saving medicine than average people. Especially if they are NBA and NFL players. Everyone knows that athletes are the most deserving people in the United States. ----- ----- Charles Barkley says NBA, NFL players 'deserve' to jump line for COVID-19 vaccine Yahoo Sports Cassandra Negley January 15, 2021, 7:27 AM Scroll back up to restore default view. NBA and NFL leaders have said they won’t jump the line to get players and personnel vaccinated for COVID-19. Charles Barkley has other thoughts on the matter. Barkley: NFL, NBA players ‘deserve’ vaccine On Thursday night’s “Inside the NBA,” the Hall of Famer asserted that players “deserve” to jump ahead of others because they pay more taxes. “Three hundred million shots, give a thousand to some NBA players, NFL players, hockey players,” Barkley said. “As much taxes as these players pay. Let me repeat that: As much taxes as these players pay, they deserve some preferential treatment.” Kenny Smith pushed back on it, seeming understandably astonished at Barkley’s take. “For life and death?” Smith asked to a “yes” from Barkley. Barkley kept on with it even as the group tried to tell him taxes are based on income levels “I said taxes. I didn’t say the amount of money you make,” Barkley said. “I said the amount of taxes these guys pay.” “We can’t go there,” Smith said, shutting down that portion of the segment. “I don’t think you can go there.” Ernie Johnson also vehemently disagreed and said the elderly and most at-risk should be taken care of first. Barkley did agree, adding first responders to the list, but kept on by saying giving “a thousand shots to NBA players is not going to change the world.” Giving a thousand shots to NBA players likely won’t change the world, which might be the point. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is the largest in the history of the United States and began last month with health care workers who have worked tirelessly for 10 months fighting the pandemic. It has gone slower than initially anticipated with only between 2 and 3 million people getting the first of the two-dose vaccine by Jan. 1, 2021. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes the country needs to vaccinate between 80 and 85 percent to achieve herd immunity. There are guidelines for who is able to get the vaccine first and though they differ from state to state and region to region, it follows an understandable pattern that doesn’t include how much taxes one pays. The New York Times has a COVID-19 vaccine timeline calculator to estimate when one might be able to get a vaccine. LeBron James, as an easy example, would likely be behind 268.7 million people in the U.S., 31 million in all of California and 7.9 million in Los Angeles county waiting to get the vaccine. That’s because he is in 36 years old with no known COVID-related health risks and he is not a health care worker, essential worker, first responder or teacher. Those jobs have priority since they are taking care of the sick, working an important and necessary job that comes into contact with a lot of people or are educating the next generation. They are also the most likely to infect others given their jobs. NBA, NFL won’t jump the line The NBA and NFL leaders have said they won’t try and jump the line to get people vaccinated. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said so outright. “There's no way we'd ever jump the line in any form whatsoever," Silver said on ESPN days before the NBA season tipped. “And, for the most part, because our players are so young and healthy without some sort of comorbidity, they will not be a high priority for vaccinations. There are some other members of the NBA community working on court who are older and will have a higher priority to get the vaccine.” NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills said it’s important they don’t appear to be getting in front, adding they wouldn’t want to “do anything that hinders the public health effort.” The NFL would have liked to have some players vaccinated with the Super Bowl, an expensive affair, coming up in a few weeks and COVID-19 cases rising. There is the potential for athletes to use getting the vaccine as a public health campaign to help others get vaccinated and get the U.S. past the pandemic. Hank Aaron, 86, was vaccinated earlier this month with the goal of showing Black Americans that it’s safe. | |
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01-13-21 10:16pm - 1438 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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In case you missed it, Tom D Admin has posted new changes to the raffle system. The main change is the prize distribution: How are the prizes divided up? 1st Prize: $300 USD 2nd Prize: $200 USD 3rd Prize: $100 USD The rest of the announcement, posted in the "Announcement" section on the home page of PU, "01-12-21 Current Raffle FAQ", repeats the rules of how to win tickets to the raffle: How much cash is given away each drawing? We give away a total of $500 the second Wednesday of every month! How are the prizes divided up? 1st Prize: $300 USD 2nd Prize: $200 USD 3rd Prize: $100 USD How do I earn raffle tickets? Submit an Approved Review: User reviews are our bread and butter on Porn Users. So if you submit a review that meets our criteria and gets approved by our team, you'll receive five entries* into the next raffle. Review Criteria is available here. Earn Extra Entries: If you are the first to review a newly listed site or you do a new review of a site with only expired reviews, you'll be given one additional entry*. Porn Review Feedback: You will earn one entry* into the raffle for every five replies you make on user reviews. We're looking for quality, not just quantity, so your postings need to be relevant and not too short. Reply to Our Two Most Recent User Polls: You will receive one entry* for the first comment you make to the New and Last poll on the homepage. Only your first comment to each poll is eligible and comments to older polls while appreciated will not earn raffle entries. Create an Active Porn-Related Forum Thread: We will give you five entries* if you start a new porn-related forum thread that receives at least 10 decent-quality replies (not just one word or emoticon) from 10 other different Porn Users. *All raffle entries are given at our staff's discretion as a courtesy and are in no way a form of payment or obligation in exchange for users posting to our website or forum. When does the drawing take place? A new drawing takes place the second Wednesday of every month at 12 PM EST. All tickets earned up to that time are included in that drawing, while any earned after 12:01 PM will be applied to the following drawing. How random is the drawing? The goal of our raffles is to give everyone who actively participates on Porn Users a chance to win a prize. At the same time, we recognize that some people contribute more often than others and we want to ensure that these valued members of our community have superior odds of winning, even if we cannot guarantee who will win or how often. The drawings will be entirely random and to that end, here's a link to the web-based tool that will be used to determine the winners. As suggested by their developers, we will utilize triple randomization and also make sure to use a private/incognito window for each drawing to ensure that there is no information from previous draws affecting the current selection process. The list of names from the manual tally will also be sorted randomly in Google sheets before being transferred to the online software. Please note - each random drawing is for entertainment purposes only with no purchase or payment required to enter or win. | |
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01-13-21 06:42am - 1439 days | #13 | |
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Your Republican party: saving taxpayers millions of dollars by poisoning Blacks. Black lives matter, but maybe not to Republicans. -------- -------- Michigan plans to charge ex-Gov. Snyder in Flint water probe AOL Associated Press ED WHITE, DAVID EGGERT and TAMMY WEBBER January 13, 2021, 6:08 AM Scroll back up to restore default view. FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, The Associated Press has learned. Two people with knowledge of the planned prosecution told the AP on Tuesday that the attorney general’s office has informed defense lawyers about indictments in Flint and told them to expect initial court appearances soon. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The AP could not determine the nature of the charges against Snyder, former health department director Nick Lyon and others who were in his administration, including Rich Baird, a friend who was the governor's key troubleshooter while in office. Courtney Covington Watkins, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said only that investigators were “working diligently” and “will share more as soon as we’re in a position to do so.” Snyder, a Republican who has been out of office for two years, was governor when state-appointed managers in Flint switched the city’s water to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-saving step while a pipeline was being built to Lake Huron. The water, however, was not treated to reduce corrosion — a disastrous decision affirmed by state regulators that caused lead to leach from old pipes and spoil the distribution system used by nearly 100,000 residents. Snyder’s attorney, Brian Lennon, released a blistering statement Tuesday, saying a criminal prosecution would be “outrageous.” He said state prosecutors have refused to “share information about these charges with us.” “Rather than following the evidence to find the truth, the Office of Special Counsel appears to be targeting former Gov. Snyder in a political escapade,” Lennon said. Snyder apologized for the catastrophe during his 2016 State of the State speech and said government at all levels had failed Flint. LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four who is credited with exposing the lead contamination, said she wants details about the charges. “The very fact that people are being held accountable is an amazing feat," Walters said. "But when people’s lives have been lost and children have been severely hurt, it doesn’t seem like enough.” The disaster made Flint a nationwide symbol of governmental mismanagement, with residents lining up for bottled water and parents fearing that their children had suffered permanent harm. Lead can damage the brain and nervous system and cause learning and behavior problems. The crisis was highlighted as an example of environmental injustice and racism. At the same time, bacteria in the water was blamed for an outbreak of Legionnaires’. Legionella bacteria can emerge through misting and cooling systems, triggering a severe form of pneumonia, especially in people with weakened immune systems. Authorities counted at least 90 cases in Genesee County, including 12 deaths. The outbreak was announced by Snyder and Lyon in January 2016, although Lyon conceded that he knew that cases were being reported many months earlier. AdChoices In 2018, Lyon was ordered to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges after a special prosecutor accused him of failing to timely inform the public about the outbreak. His attorneys argued there wasn't enough solid information to share earlier. By June 2019, the entire Flint water investigation was turned upside down after more than three years and millions of dollars. Prosecutors working under a new attorney general, Dana Nessel, dismissed the case against Lyon as well as charges against seven more people and said the probe would start anew. They said all available evidence was not pursued by the previous team of prosecutors. The decision didn't affect seven people who had already pleaded no contest to misdemeanors. They cooperated with investigators and their records were eventually scrubbed clean. Lyon's attorney said he was turned down when he asked prosecutors for a copy of new charges. The new case “would be a travesty of justice," Chip Chamberlain said. Testimony at court hearings had raised questions about when Snyder knew about the Legionnaires' outbreak. His urban affairs adviser, Harvey Hollins, told a judge that the governor was informed on Christmas Eve 2015. But Snyder had told reporters three weeks later, in January 2016, that he had just learned about it. Defense attorney Randy Levine said he was informed Monday that Baird, a Flint native, would face charges. Another lawyer, Jamie White, said former Flint public works chief Howard Croft is being charged. "When the Flint water crisis hit, he wasn’t assigned by Gov. Snyder to go to Flint, but rather he raised his hand and volunteered," Levine said of Baird. A resident, Edna Sabucco, 61, said she still uses water filters, although the lead service line at her home of 40-plus years has been replaced, along with more than 9,700 others in Flint. “He swept things under the rug, in my opinion, and to me that makes him just as guilty as everybody else because he should have come out singing like a canary,” Sabucco said of Snyder. Separately, the state, Flint, a hospital and an engineering firm have agreed to a $641 million settlement with residents over the water crisis, with $600 million coming from Michigan. A judge is considering whether to grant preliminary approval. ___ White reported from Detroit. Eggert reported from Lansing. John Flesher in Traverse City contributed to this story. | |
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01-13-21 02:57am - 1439 days | #12 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Republicans are special people: they should not have to follow the same rules that peons and Scummy Democrats have to follow. In many government buildings, a normal person has to pass through metal detectors, remove a belt, have any luggage searched while entering. But Republicans claim the rules are different for Republicans, who are the highest beings on Earth, close to God Himself. Citizens, to arms, take your AK-47s to Washington, and shoot down any police who do not recognize the rights of Republicans!!!!!! ------ ------ Republicans protest, circumvent new metal detectors inside Capitol after riot NBC Universal Dartunorro Clark and Alex Moe and Haley Talbot January 12, 2021, 7:32 PM WASHINGTON — Several Republican members of Congress on Tuesday complained about — or outright bypassed — the metal detectors to enter the House floor, which were ordered put in place by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after last week's deadly riot at the Capitol. Ahead of a House vote Tuesday evening calling for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office, the Republican members expressed anger and frustration in accessing the chamber. Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Steve Stivers of Ohio, Van Taylor of Texas, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Debbie Lesko of Arizona and Larry Bucshon of Indiana, among others, were seen not complying with police at checkpoints or complained about the measure's implementation, according to press pool and media reports. Boebert, a newly elected member who vowed in a viral video to carry a gun in the Capitol, was seen in an apparent dispute with police over going through the metal detector. "I am legally permitted to carry my firearm in Washington, D.C. and within the Capitol complex," she tweeted. "Metal detectors outside of the House would not have stopped the violence we saw last week — it's just another political stunt by Speaker Pelosi." Members, however, have been told: "firearms are restricted to a Member's Office." Taylor refused to pass through the metal detector and argued with officers about it, said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., told the officers at the door "this is bulls---" as he went through the security, saying the police were securing the wrong perimeter. "The threat is not on the interior side of the building. You are taking valuable resources completely away from where it needs to be. And you guys did it without any consultation with the minority," Davis told House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., outside the chamber. "Bulls---." The new measure apparently has created tension between some members and police. Davis defused a dispute between a member and police as he was talking to reporters at the Capitol. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who survived a shooting during a congressional baseball game in 2017, told reporters that the extra layer of security was not needed, and he criticized Pelosi for "impeding" members from voting, saying the change was "never discussed" with GOP leadership. Lesko, in a tweet, blamed Pelosi. "For members of Congress to enter the floor of the U.S. House, we now have to go through intense security measures, on top of the security we already go through," she said. "These new provisions include searches and being wanded like criminals. We now live in Pelosi's communist America!" On the House floor, during arguments on a motion regarding the 25th Amendment, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., called the metal detectors an "atrocity." "Take note, America," he said. "This is what you have to look forward to in the Joe Biden administration." Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a top Trump defender, said the added security was hampering his constitutional rights. Alex Moe and Haley Talbot reported from Washington and Dartunorro Clark from New York. | |
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01-13-21 01:53am - 1439 days | #11 | |
LKLK (0)
Active User Posts: 1,583 Registered: Jun 26, '19 Location: CA |
Some Democrats are trying to impeach Trump after his term of presidency is over. This would give Republicans a chance to punish the ex-president once he's no longer the president. But would Republicans want to hurt or help their own party? By exposing Trump to a trial in the Senate once again? Politics can be strange. It's not about trying to act high-minded and accomplish the greatest good for the people: instead, it's about sniping at your enemies, exposing the dirty linen they've tried to hide. Lock him up, says Biden, echoing the immortal words of Donald Trump. It's probably too late to lock up Hilary Clinton. But there's still a chance to lock up Donald Trump. There's still time for Trump to issue a pardon for himself and the rest of his family. And then the nation can focus on more important issues. Note: a pardon for Trump would not shield him on the state level: Trump is under investigation for civil and criminal offenses in New York and other states. Can Trump emigrate to Russia, where he would be shielded from US laws? Would Putin welcome Trump with open arms, or would he banish Trump to Siberia, since Putin has little regard for losers? Enquiring minds want to know: Can Trump act as a shill for Putin? Can Trump sell enough American secrets to Putin to live a life of luxury in exile? | |
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