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06-24-22  04:26pm - 818 days #3
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The US Supreme Court upholds the right of rapists to have women bear their children.

US Supreme Court also upholds the doctrine that women are second class citizens.

Will The US Supreme Court bring back slavery and indentured servants, since slaves and indentured servants were legal when the US Constitution was created?

Enquiring minds want to know: does Brett Kavanaugh still drink beer? Does a bear shit in the woods?
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'A woman will have to bear her rapist's child': The liberal SCOTUS justices' blunt dissent to opinion overturning Roe
Yahoo News
Ben Adler
June 24, 2022, 10:24 AM


On Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, the three Democratic appointees — Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — wrote a forthright response casting the majority’s decision as a blow to women’s civil rights.

“With sorrow — for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent,” they wrote.

“Today, the Court … says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of,” they continued. “A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs.”

Citing laws that have already been passed in more conservative states and would now take effect, they warned of dire consequences in states that will now be free to ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, or when bringing a pregnancy to term risks the mother’s health.

They also suggested that the reversal of Roe may lead to the revocation of additional constitutional rights that have come from the same line of legal reasoning, including the right to contraception found in Griswold v. Connecticut. “Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy, or additional constitutional rights are under threat,” they wrote.
Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.
Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor in 2021. (Photo illustratioin: Yahoo News; photos: Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Here are five key passages from the dissenting opinion:
1. Some states will — in fact, some already have — ban abortion without exceptions.

“[States] have passed laws without any exceptions for when the woman is the victim of rape or incest. Under those laws, a woman will have to bear her rapist’s child or a young girl her father’s — no matter if doing so will destroy her life. So too, after today’s ruling, some States may compel women to carry to term a fetus with severe physical anomalies — for example, one afflicted with Tay-Sachs disease, sure to die within a few years of birth. States may even argue that a prohibition on abortion need make no provision for protecting a woman from risk of death or physical harm. Across a vast array of circumstances, a State will be able to impose its moral choice on a woman and coerce her to give birth to a child.”
2. Some states will — in fact, some already have — pass laws that punish women who get abortions, or others who get involved in a woman’s pregnancy.

“Perhaps, in the wake of today’s decision, a state law will criminalize the woman’s conduct too, incarcerating or fining her for daring to seek or obtain an abortion. And as Texas has recently shown, a State can turn neighbor against neighbor, enlisting fellow citizens in the effort to root out anyone who tries to get an abortion, or to assist another in doing so.”
3. Women’s rights are being curtailed, especially those of poorer women.
Abortion rights protesters at a rally in New York City’s Washington Square Park.
Abortion rights protesters at a rally earlier this month in New York City’s Washington Square Park in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

“Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens. Yesterday, the Constitution guaranteed that a woman confronted with an unplanned pregnancy could (within reasonable limits) make her own decision about whether to bear a child, with all the life-transforming consequences that act involves. ... As of today, this Court holds, a State can always force a woman to give birth, prohibiting even the earliest abortions. A State can thus transform what, when freely undertaken, is a wonder into what, when forced, may be a nightmare. Some women, especially women of means, will find ways around the State’s assertion of power. Others — those without money or childcare or the ability to take time off from work — will not be so fortunate. Maybe they will try an unsafe method of abortion, and come to physical harm, or even die. Maybe they will undergo pregnancy and have a child, but at significant personal or familial cost. At the least, they will incur the cost of losing control of their lives. The Constitution will, today’s majority holds, provide no shield, despite its guarantees of liberty and equality for all.”
4. This may be just the first in a series of decisions that roll back the right to privacy and gender equality.
Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court.
Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court on Thursday. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“And no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work. The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone. To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation. ... The lone rationale for what the majority does today is that the right to elect an abortion is not ‘deeply rooted in history’: Not until Roe, the majority argues, did people think abortion fell within the Constitution’s guarantee of liberty. ... The same could be said, though, of most of the rights the majority claims it is not tampering with. The majority could write just as long an opinion showing, for example, that until the mid-20th century, ‘there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain [contraceptives].’ ... So one of two things must be true. Either the majority does not really believe in its own reasoning. Or if it does, all rights that have no history stretching back to the mid-19th century are insecure. Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy, or additional constitutional rights are under threat. It is one or the other.”
5. The majority argues that women’s rights today should be limited by what the Constitution’s authors thought in a more sexist time.
Abortion rights activists march in Washington, D.C., on June 13.
Abortion rights activists march in Washington, D.C., on June 13. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The majority’s core legal postulate, then, is that we in the 21st century must read the Fourteenth Amendment just as its ratifiers did. And that is indeed what the majority emphasizes over and over again. ... If the ratifiers did not understand something as central to freedom, then neither can we. Or said more particularly: If those people did not understand reproductive rights as part of the guarantee of liberty conferred in the Fourteenth Amendment, then those rights do not exist.

As an initial matter, note a mistake in the just preceding sentence. We referred there to the ‘people’ who ratified the Fourteenth Amendment: What rights did those ‘people’ have in their heads at the time? But, of course, ‘people’ did not ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. Men did. So it is perhaps not so surprising that the ratifiers were not perfectly attuned to the importance of reproductive rights for women’s liberty, or for their capacity to participate as equal members of our Nation.

... Those responsible for the original Constitution, including the Fourteenth Amendment, did not perceive women as equals, and did not recognize women’s rights. When the majority says that we must read our foundational charter as viewed at the time of ratification (except that we may also check it against the Dark Ages), it consigns women to second-class citizenship.”

06-24-22  08:49am - 818 days #2
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Although the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making it easier for states to make abortions illegal, they have come down on the right to bear handguns in public.

However, a man with a gun and knife was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh's house recently.
The man said that he had a gun in his suitcase. He said the gun was unloaded and in a locked case. Officials said the man is from Simi Valley, CA.

Since the gun was unloaded, and in a locked case, what was the harm?

The problem might be that the man was carrying a gun (in his suitcase) before the Supreme Court made it's ruling that handguns are allowed in public.

Maybe Brett Kavanaugh can represent the arrested man, or at least suggest a good lawyer to get the man out of jail?

06-24-22  08:28am - 818 days Original Post - #1
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Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion
Associated Press
MARK SHERMAN
June 24, 2022, 8:14 AM

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

06-23-22  05:14pm - 819 days Original Post - #1
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https://www.aol.com/news/good-dog-westmi...21965-203001689.html

If you look at a photo of the winning bloodhound, you realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The bloodhound was featured on Good Morning America, along with his proud owners.
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Sound off! Trumpet is 1st bloodhound to win Westminster show
Associated Press
JENNIFER PELTZ
June 23, 2022, 2:30 PM


TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Now this hound has something to toot his horn about.

A bloodhound named Trumpet won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Wednesday night, marking the first time the breed has ever snared U.S. dogdom’s most coveted best in show prize.

Rounding the finalists' ring with a poised and powerful stride, Trumpet beat a French bulldog, a German shepherd, a Maltese, an English setter, a Samoyed and a Lakeland terrier to take the trophy.

“I was shocked,” said handler, co-breeder and co-owner Heather Helmer, who also goes by Heather Buehner. The competition was stiff, “and sometimes I feel the bloodhound is a bit of an underdog.”

After making dog show history, does Trumpet have a sense of how special he is?

“I think he does,” his Berlin Center, Ohio-based handler said.

After his victory, Trumpet posed patiently for countless photos, eventually starting to do what bloodhounds do best — sniff around. He examined some decorative flowers that had been set up for the pictures, not appearing to find anything of note.

Winston, a French bulldog co-owned by NFL defensive lineman Morgan Fox, took second in the nation's most prestigious dog show.

“I'm just so proud of him and the whole team,” Fox said by text afterward.

Fox, who was just signed by the Los Angeles Chargers and has played for the Los Angeles Rams and the Carolina Panthers, got Winston from his grandmother, Sandy Fox. She has bred and shown Frenchies for years.

Morgan Fox grew up with one and says that as he watched Winston mature, he knew the dog was a winner in both appearance and character. He went into Westminster as the top-ranked dog in the country.

“He’s a joy to be around,” Fox said by phone before Winston's award. “He always walks around with as much of a smile on his face as a dog can have.”

The seven finalists also included Striker, a Samoyed that also made the finals last year; River, a big-winning German shepherd; MM the Lakeland terrier; Belle the English setter, and a Maltese that clearly was aiming for stardom: Her name is Hollywood.

After topping the canine rankings last year, Striker has lately been hitting a few dog shows “to keep his head in the game,” said handler Laura King.

What makes the snow-white Samoyed shine in competition? “His heart,” said King, of Milan, Illinois.

“His charisma shows when he’s showing,” and he vocally complains when he’s not, she said.

While he was quiet in the ring, an Alaskan Malamute provided a yowling — cheering? — soundtrack for a semifinal round featuring the Samoyed and other breeds classified as working dogs.

The competition drew more than 3,000 purebred dogs, ranging from affenpinschers to Yorkshire terriers. The goal is to crown the dog that most represents the ideal for its breed.

Usually held in winter at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the show moved to the suburban Lyndhurst estate last year and this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some dogs, such as golden retrievers, faced dozens of competitors just to win their breed and move on to the semifinals. Others were among few representatives of rare breeds.

Ooma was the only Chinook that showed up. The sled-pullers are the official dog of the state of New Hampshire, but they’re rare nationwide.

“I would love to see a couple more” in the Westminster ring, said Ooma’s breeder, owner and handler, Patti Richards of West Haven, Vermont. “Without people who will show and breed, we’re in danger of losing our breed.”

Even for hopefuls that didn't come away with a ribbon, the event was an opportunity to showcase dogs and all they can do.

Bonnie the Brittany is owner-handler Dr. Jessica Sielawa’s first show dog, and their teamwork extends beyond the ring.

Bonnie accompanies Sielawa to work at her chiropractic practice in Syracuse, New York, where “she’s really helped people with their emotional stress,” Sielawa said.

She plans to get her show dog certified as a therapy dog, too.

06-21-22  10:19pm - 821 days #7
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I don't know where the rules/requirements for a review are posted.

But I seem to remember that only pay sites can be reviewed.
However, I think that a review of indexxx.com would be useful. I use the site to try to keep track of models I'm interested in. And find the site to be very helpful.

However, the PU staff seems to pay little attention to this thread.
Perhaps you can send a private email to Tom D or the PU staff about reviewing the indexxx.com site?
That might get their attention, faster than posting to this thread.

For what it's worth, I think a review of indexxx.com would be a worthwhile addition to the PU site, and worthy of getting raffle tickets.

06-16-22  10:23am - 826 days #3
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Amazon Prime Day 2022:
July 12-13.
Just announced on Amazon.

Note: I'm not a shill for Amazon.
I've been called a shill for different sites.
When I promote them, or say I like them.
But I have no commercial relationship with these sites, except paying to use them or their services.
I have an Amazon Prime Membership, that now costs around $139/year.
But I pay them, they don't pay me.

Edited on Jun 16, 2022, 10:27am

06-14-22  02:50pm - 828 days #190
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Donald Trump, the fittest and fightenest President of the Untied States of Trumperland, has issued a 12-page report on the state of Sleepy Joe Biden and what is wrong with America today.
Bring back Trump, and he will make America great again.
And put Sleepy Joe in jail, where he belongs.
Sleepy Joe stole the election.
Sleepy Joe stole the Whtie House.
Sleepy Joe is a Democrat, and all Democrats are from Hell!!!!!
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Trump releases 12-page statement responding to Jan. 6 hearing
Yahoo News
Dylan Stableford
June 14, 2022, 9:03 AM


Hours after the Jan. 6 committee held the second in a series of public hearings on the events surrounding the Capitol riot, former President Donald Trump released a 12-page statement on Monday repeating many of the same false election fraud claims that the panel says led to the violent insurrection.

In it, Trump suggested that the bipartisan committee’s televised presentation of evidence collected in its 11-month investigation of the attack is an attempt by Democrats at distracting from numerous issues weighing on President Biden’s administration, including inflation and the baby formula shortage.

“They are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation,” Trump said. “They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects.”

Trump made little mention of what was actually presented during Monday’s hearing, which featured testimony from his former aides who said they told him repeatedly that his election fraud claims were bogus and that he didn’t have the numbers needed to win on election night to claim victory.

According to Bill Stepien, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, and Jason Miller, a top adviser, Trump instead decided to heed the advice of Rudy Giuliani, who they said appeared to be intoxicated when he urged the former president to declare victory and say the election was being stolen.

The daytime hearing, which was carried live by the major networks including Fox News, also featured more testimony from former Attorney General William Barr, who told the panel that Trump appeared to lose touch with reality following his election loss to Biden and showed no interest in the evidence that disproved his wild claims of voter fraud.

“Before the election, it was sometimes possible to talk sense to the president,” Barr said in videotaped testimony played Monday. “But I felt that after the election he didn’t seem to be listening.

“I really thought he’s become detached from reality,” Barr added. “There was never any interest in what the actual facts were.”

Trump, who railed against Barr following last week’s primetime hearing, made no mention of his former attorney general in his 12-page statement.

It was, however, peppered with Trumpisms (“Sleepy Joe,” the “Unselect committee” et al.) and dozens of footnotes, many of which were attributions to “2,000 Mules,” a documentary directed by Dinesh D'Souza that purports to have "smoking gun" evidence of massive voter fraud.

The film was referenced several times during Monday’s hearing, with Barr saying he had seen no evidence to support that the election was stolen, “including the ‘2,000 Mules’ movie."

Trump concluded his statement by suggesting the Jan. 6 hearings are “merely an attempt to stop a man that is leading in every poll, against both Republicans and Democrats by wide margins, from running again for the Presidency.”

While Trump is not leading in every poll, he appeared to be referring to himself.

06-14-22  10:48am - 828 days #2
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Kevin Bacon surprised by Kevin Bacon restaurant chain in Argentina: 'I'll be talking to my attorney'
Yahoo TV
Kylie Mar
June 14, 2022, 1:05 AM

On Monday's Jimmy Kimmel Live!,Kevin Bacon was surprised to learn about a fast food chain in Argentina that is heavily inspired by him.

"I want to ask you about something very strange," Kimmel told Bacon while pulling up an image of the restaurant's logo featuring the name "Kevin Bacon Fast Good" around an image of Bacon's face. "This is a fast food restaurant in Argentina and it looks like there are locations around the world called Kevin Bacon Fast Good."

Being that the actor's last name is Bacon, it isn't the first time he's been associated with food, particularly bacon burgers. However, since the actor did not give permission to use his name or likeness, and had no prior knowledge about the restaurant chain, particularly its brand image of being "f***ing porn food," he didn't seem too pleased, as he joked with Kimmel. "Listen, I clearly didn't have photo approval. That is not a good picture. Some kind of clown face."

"I gotta tell you, I think there are other Kevin Bacon restaurants that I don't get any money for," said Bacon. Kimmel was surprised that Bacon had no idea about the restaurant as he stated, "You're kidding me! Wow, that's how you know you're famous when you're getting ripped off in Argentina."

Ultimately, Bacon declared, "I'll be talking to my attorney. We'll get it dialed in."

Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on ABC.

06-14-22  10:38am - 828 days #189
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The pope says Russia has been cruel in the war with Ukraine.
But perhaps the war was provoked.
So maybe Russia had a reason for invading.
And maybe, if you get killed, or kill someone, there is a reason for that.
So what should we do?
Pray to become better people.
Just like the Republican party: who say the Jan 2020 riots were only harmless fun.
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Pope raps Russian 'cruelty' in Ukraine but says war perhaps provoked
Reuters
Philip Pullella
June 14, 2022, 3:07 AM

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis has taken a new series of swipes at Russia for its actions in Ukraine, saying its troops were brutal, cruel and ferocious, while praising "brave" Ukrainians for fighting for survival.

But in the text of a conversation he had last month with editors of Jesuit media and published on Tuesday, he also said the situation was not black and white and that the war was "perhaps in some way provoked".

While condemning "the ferocity, the cruelty of Russian troops, we must not forget the real problems if we want them to be solved," Francis said, including the armaments industry among the factors that provide incentives for war.

"It is also true that the Russians thought it would all be over in a week. But they miscalculated. They encountered a brave people, a people who are struggling to survive and who have a history of struggle," he said in the transcript of the conversation, published by the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica.

"This is what moves us: to see such heroism. I would really like to emphasize this point, the heroism of the Ukrainian people. What is before our eyes is a situation of world war, global interests, arms sales and geopolitical appropriation, which is martyring a heroic people," he said.

Francis said that several months before President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine, the pontiff had met with a head of state who expressed concern that NATO was "barking at the gates of Russia" in a way that could lead to war.

Francis then said in his own words: "We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented".

Asking himself rhetorically if that made him "pro-Putin," he said: "No, I am not. It would be simplistic and wrong to say such a thing".

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists, a characterisation previously criticised by Francis. Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

In his comments, Francis also noted Russia's "monstrous" use of Chechen and Syrian mercenaries in Ukraine.

Francis said he hoped to meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill at an inter-religious event in Kazakhstan in September. The two had been due to meet in Jerusalem on June but that trip was cancelled because of the war.

Kirill, who is close to Putin, has given the war in Ukraine his full-throated backing. Francis said last month that Kirill could not become "Putin's altar boy", prompting a protest from the Russian Orthodox Church.

In the conversation with the Jesuits, Francis said he had told Kirill during a video call in March: "Brother, we are not clerics of the state, we are pastors of the people".

06-13-22  12:15pm - 829 days #188
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Jan. 6 panel: Trump campaign used 'big lie' to raise millions from supporters
Yahoo News
Christopher Wilson
June 13, 2022, 11:37 AM


The committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot said that former President Donald Trump’s campaign fundraised off of baseless allegations of election fraud but spent very little of the money on legal action.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said Monday morning that the House select committee would show “that the Trump campaign used these false claims of election fraud to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters who were told their donations were for the legal fight in the courts. But the Trump campaign didn’t use the money for that. The ‘big lie’ was also a big rip-off.”

“We’ll present evidence that Mr. Trump’s claims of election fraud were false, that he and his closest advisers knew those claims were false but they continued to peddle them anyway right up until the moments before a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol,” she said.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren at the Monday hearing of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

During the hearing, a senior investigative counsel for the committee said that Trump supporters received upward of 25 emails a day urging them to donate to an election defense fund that did not exist.

“The Trump campaign knew that these claims of voter fraud were false yet they continued to barrage small-dollar donors with emails encouraging them to donate to something called the ‘Official Election Defense Fund,’” Amanda Wick said. “The select committee discovered no such fund existed.”

In a taped deposition, former Trump campaign staffer Hanna Allred said, “I don’t believe there is actually a fund called the Election Defense Fund,” while the campaign’s digital director agreed that the Election Defense Fund was a “marketing tactic.”

Wick noted that much of the money went to the Save America PAC, which was created on Nov. 9, two days after the election was called for Biden. That PAC then routed $1 million to two separate organizations tied to Trump staffers, $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection and $5 million for the company that organized the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the violence at the Capitol, according to Wick.
Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney.
From left: Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney during a House select committee hearing on Monday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

A February 2021 analysis from ABC News found that in the three months that followed the election when Trump and his allies were peddling the conspiracy theory that the race was stolen, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised $280 million. Only $13 million of that was spent on legal expenses, with more than $100 million going toward “various fundraising expenses and advertising efforts aimed at raising even more money.”

Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, who was involved in the network’s decision desk that called the race for Joe Biden, testified later in the hearing that the Trump campaign’s strategy of overturning multiple races was nearly impossible.

“Ahead of today, I thought about what are the largest margins that could ever be overturned by a recount,” he said. “In modern history, you’re talking about 1,000 votes, 1,500 votes at the way, way outside. Normally, you’re talking about hundreds of votes, maybe 300 votes that are going to change.

“So the idea that through any normal process in any of these states — remember he had to do it thrice. He needed three of these states to change,” Stirewalt said. “In order to do that, you’re better off to play the Powerball than to have that come in.”

Monday’s hearing was the second public panel from the Jan. 6 House committee following last week’s primetime debut in which Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Trump had “a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.”
___

06-13-22  02:10am - 829 days #187
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Republicans sought pardons for any possible crimes.
"We're innocent", cry the Republicans.
We're only trying to make America great again.
But Democrats are showboating: We have to make this an event, we can't reveal all we know, or people will lose interest.
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The Guardian
Capitol attack pardon revelations could spell doom for Trump and allies
Hugo Lowell in Washington DC
Sun, June 12, 2022 at 1:00 AM

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack revealed at its inaugural hearing that Donald Trump’s top Republican allies in Congress sought pardons after the January 6 insurrection, a major disclosure that bolstered the claim that the event amounted to a coup and is likely to cause serious scrutiny for those implicated.

The news that multiple House Republicans asked the Trump White House for pardons – an apparent consciousness of guilt – was one of three revelations portending potentially perilous legal and political moments to come for Trump and his allies.

Related: January 6 hearing: Trump was at heart of plot that led to ‘attempted coup’

At the hearing, the panel’s vice-chair Liz Cheney named only one Republican member of Congress, congressman Scott Perry, the current chair of the ultra conservative House freedom caucus, who sought a presidential pardon for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The select committee did not elaborate on which other House Republicans were asking for pardons or more significantly, for which crimes they were seeking pardons, but it appeared to show at the minimum that they knew they had been involved in likely illegal conduct.

The extraordinary claim also raised the prospect that the Republican members of Congress seeking clemency believed Trump’s election fraud claims were baseless: for why would they need pardons if they really were only raising legitimate questions about the election.

“It’s hard to find a more explicit statement of consciousness of guilt than looking for a pardon for actions you’ve just taken, assisting in a plan to overthrow the results of a presidential election,” Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, told reporters.
Willful blindness

The disclosure about the pardons came during the opening hour of the hearing where the panel made the case that Trump could not credibly believe he had won the 2020 election after some of his most senior advisors told him repeatedly that he had lost to Joe Biden.

Trump, according to videos of closed-door depositions played by the select committee, was told by his data experts he lost the election, told by former attorney general Bill Barr that his election fraud claims were “bullshit”, a conclusion Ivanka Trump said she accepted.

The admissions by some of Trump’s top aides are important since they could put federal prosecutors one step closer to being able to charge Trump with obstructing an official proceeding or defrauding the United States on the basis of election fraud claims he knew were false.

It’s hard to find a more explicit statement of consciousness of guilt than looking for a pardon for actions you’ve just taken

Jamie Raskin

At the heart of the case the panel appears to be trying to make is the legal doctrine of “willful blindness”, as former US attorney Joyce Vance wrote for MSNBC, which says a defendant cannot say they weren’t aware of something if they were credibly notified of the truth.

The potential case against Trump might take the form that he could not use, as his defense against charges he violated the law to stop Biden’s certification on January 6, that he believed there was election fraud, when he had been credibly notified it was “bullshit”.
Trump-Flynn-Powell meeting

Also in the first hour of the hearing, the select committee cast in a new light the contentious 18 December 2020 meeting Trump had at the White House with his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell.

The Guardian has reported extensively on that meeting, where Powell urged Trump to sign an executive order to seize voting machines and suspend normal law, based on Trump’s executive order 13848, and to appoint her special counsel to investigate election fraud.

Cheney confirmed the reporting by this newspaper and others, that the group discussed “dramatic steps” such as seizing voting machines, but also alluded to a potential discussion about somehow obstructing Biden’s election win certification.

The basis for that characterization, based on how Cheney described the late night meeting in the Oval Office that later continued in the White House residence, appears to be how Trump, just hours later, tweeted that there would be a “wild protest” on January 6.

It was not clear whether Cheney was laying the groundwork for the select committee to tie Trump into a conspiracy of some sort, claiming this represented two people entering an agreement and taking overt steps to accomplishing it – the legal standard for conspiracy.

But the “wild protest” phrase would shortly after be seized upon by some of the most prominent far-right political operatives.

Hours after Trump’s tweet, according to archived versions of its website, Stop the Steal changed its banner to advertise a “wild protest” before Ali Alexander, who led the movement, even applied for a permit to stage a rally on the east side of the Capitol on January 6.

06-13-22  01:51am - 829 days #186
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Trump called investigations into his acts a witch hunt.
But the evidence shows that Trump is a witch.
But Republicans will fight blame, putting it on everyone.
"We are all responsible," says the Republican party.
Meaning, no one can be blamed.
And there was no crime.
Anyone who was injured, just got in the way, and deserved what they got.
Republicans, the party of hypocrites and liars. And good old boys.
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Jan. 6 panelists: Enough evidence uncovered to indict Trump
Associated Press
HOPE YEN
June 12, 2022, 2:29 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Sunday they have uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The committee announced that Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is among the witnesses scheduled to testify at a hearing Monday that focuses on Trump's effort to spread his lies about a stolen election. Stepien was subpoenaed for his public testimony.

As the hearings unfold, Rep. Adam Schiff said he would like the department to “investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump.” Schiff, D-Calif., who also leads the House Intelligence Committee, said that ”there are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the election that I don’t see evidence the Justice Department is investigating.”

The committee held its first public hearing last week, with members laying out their case against Trump to show how the defeated president relentlessly pushed his false claims of a rigged election despite multiple advisers telling him otherwise and how he intensified an extraordinary scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

Additional evidence is set to be released in hearings this week that will demonstrate how Trump and some of his advisers engaged in a “massive effort” to spread misinformation, pressured the Justice Department to embrace his false claims, and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject state electors and block the vote certification on Jan. 6, 2021.

Stepien, a longtime Trump ally, is now a top campaign adviser to the Trump-endorsed House candidate in Wyoming's Republican primary, Harriet Hageman, who is challenging Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair and a vociferous critic of the former president. A Trump spokesman, Taylor Budowich, suggested that the committee's decision to call Stepien was politically motivated.

Monday's witness list also includes BJay Pak, the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta who left his position on Jan 4, 2021, a day after an audio recording was made public in which Trump called him a “never-Trumper," and Chris Stirewalt, the former political editor for Fox News.

The committee has said most of those interviewed in the investigation are coming forward voluntarily, although some have wanted subpoenas to appear in public. Filmmaker Nick Quested, who provided documentary footage of the attack, said during last week’s hearing he received a subpoena to appear.

Committee members said they would present clear evidence that “multiple” GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., had sought a pardon from Trump, which would protect him from prosecution. Perry on Friday denied he ever did so, calling the assertion an “absolute, shameless, and soulless lie.”

“We’re not going to make accusations or say things without proof or evidence backing it,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

Lawmakers indicated that perhaps their most important audience member over the course of the hearings may be Attorney General Merrick Garland, who must decide whether his department can and should prosecute Trump. They left no doubt as to their own view whether the evidence is sufficient to proceed.

“Once the evidence is accumulated by the Justice Department, it needs to make a decision about whether it can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the president’s guilt or anyone else’s,” Schiff said. “But they need to be investigated if there’s credible evidence, which I think there is.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said he doesn’t intend to “browbeat” Garland but noted the committee has already laid out in legal pleadings criminal statutes they believe Trump violated.

“I think that he knows, his staff knows, the U.S. attorneys know, what’s at stake here,” Raskin said. “They know the importance of it, but I think they are rightfully paying close attention to precedent in history as well, as the facts of this case.”

Garland has not specified whether he would be willing to prosecute, which would be unprecedented and may be complicated in a political election season in which Trump has openly flirted with the idea of running for president again.

No president or ex-president has ever been indicted.

Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974 as he faced an impeachment and a likely grand jury indictment on charges of bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. President Gerald Ford later pardoned his predecessor before any criminal charges related to Watergate could be filed.

Legal experts have said a Justice Department prosecution of Trump over the riot could set an uneasy precedent in which an administration of one party could more routinely go after the former president of another.

"We will follow the facts wherever they lead,” Garland said in his speech at Harvard University’s commencement ceremony last month.

A federal judge in California said in a March ruling in a civil case that Trump “more likely than not” committed federal crimes in seeking to obstruct the congressional count of the Electoral College ballots on Jan. 6, 2021. The judge cited two statutes: obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

Schiff appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Raskin spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union," and Kinzinger was on CBS’s “Face the Nation."

___

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

06-11-22  02:26pm - 831 days #185
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Fox News anchors joke that Trump family gatherings could be 'awkward' after Ivanka’s Jan. 6 testimony
Yahoo TV
Stephen Proctor
June 9, 2022, 11:32 PM

After declining to air the first January 6 Committee hearing, Fox News covered it with a special Fox News at Night With Shannon Bream featuring anchors Martha McCallum and Bret Baier. At the hearing, the committee played video of former Attorney General Bill Barr’s testimony, later followed by video of Ivanka Trump’s testimony. In his testimony, Barr said that he told former President Trump that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and that the former president’s claims were “bulls***.” The committee aired only a small portion of Ivanka’s testimony, but in it, she is shown agreeing with Barr and contradicting her father.

“How did that affect your perspective about the election when Attorney General Barr made that statement?” Ivanka was asked. “It affected my perspective,” she replied. “I respect Attorney General Barr, so I accepted what he was saying.”

“I think that was sort of part of them laying that out and establishing that he (Trump) was on his own on that thinking,” McCallum said. “But, you know, on the second time watching that from Ivanka Trump, it strikes me she was put in a very difficult position. Essentially, what she’s saying there is, ‘I believed what Bill Barr said over what my father was saying.’ And that is — it could not have been a very easy moment for her.”

That’s when Baier cut in, joking that Ivanka’s testimony could make things a little weird at Thanksgiving.

“Makes Thanksgiving a little tough,” Baier said, laughing. McCallum replied, “It makes Thanksgiving a little tricky.” “Could be a little bit awkward,” Bream added. “Father’s Day is coming up. We’ll see how that goes.”

06-11-22  02:21pm - 831 days #184
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Mother Russia, fighting for world peace, decides it's OK to kill civilian men, women and children. But if anyone gets in Russia's way, they can be killed as well.
When will Sleepy Joe wake up, and send missiles to wipe out Best Buddy Putin, the ally of Donald Trump?
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Ukraine: Russia said to be using more deadly weapons in war
Associated Press
DAVID KEYTON and JOHN LEICESTER
June 11, 2022, 10:16 AM

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian and British officials warned Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons able to cause mass casualties as they try to make headway in capturing eastern Ukraine and fierce, prolonged fighting depletes resources on both sides.

Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine, the U.K. Defense Ministry said. The Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead. When used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, they “are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties,” the ministry said.

Both sides have expended large amounts of weaponry in what has become a grinding war of attrition for the eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas, placing huge strains on their resources and stockpiles.
Related video: Ukrainian military running out of ammunition

Russia is likely using the 5.5-tonne (6.1-ton) anti-ship missiles because it is running short of more precise modern missiles, the British ministry said. It gave no details of where exactly such missiles are thought to have been deployed.

As Russia also sought to consolidate it’s hold over territory seized so far in the 108-day war, U.S. Defense Secretary said Moscow's invasion of Ukraine “is what happens when oppressors trample the rules that protect us all.”

“It’s what happens when big powers decide that their imperial appetites matter more than the rights of their peaceful neighbors,” Austin said during a visit to Asia. “And it’s a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”

___

GOVERNOR: FLAMETHROWERS USED IN LUHANSK

A Ukrainian governor accused Russia of using incendiary weapons in a village in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk province, southwest of the fiercely contested cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.

While the use of flamethrowers on the battlefield is legal, Serhii Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, alleged the overnight attacks in Vrubivka caused widespread damage to civilian facilities and an unknown number of victims.

"At night, the enemy used a flamethrower rocket system - many houses burnt down,” Haidai wrote on Telegram on Saturday. The accuracy of his claim could not be immediately verified.

Sievierodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk are the last major areas of Luhansk province remaining under Ukrainian control. Haidai said the Russians destroyed railway depots, a brick factory and a glass factory.

The Ukrainian army said Saturday that Russian forces also were to launch an offensive on the Donetsk province city of Sloviansk. Donetsk and Luhansk together make up the Donbas,

Moscow-backed rebels have controlled self-proclaimed republics in both provinces since 2014, and Russia is trying to seize the territory still in Ukrainian hands.

___

ZELENSKYY SEEKS MORE EU SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA

During a visit to Kyiv by the European Union's top official, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy called for a new round of “even stronger” EU sanctions against Russia.

Zelenskyy called for the new sanctions to target more Russian officials, including judges, and to hamper the activities of all Russian banks, including gas giant Gazprom's bank, as well as all Russian companies helping Moscow “in any way.”

He spoke during a brief press appearance with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the heavily guarded presidential office compound in Ukraine's capital. Von der Leyen was on her second visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor.

The pair discussed Ukraine’s aspirations for EU membership. Zelenskyy, speaking through a translator, said Ukraine “will do everything” to integrate with the bloc.

“Russia wants to divide Europe, wants to weaken Europe,” he said.

Von der Leyen said the EU's executive arm was “working day and night” on an assessment of Ukraine’s eligibility as an EU candidate. The goal is to have the review ready to share with the bloc's 27 existing members by the end of next week.

Zelenskyy and some EU supporters want Ukraine admitted to the EU quickly. Von der Leyen described the membership process as “a merit-based path” and appealed for Ukraine to strengthen its rule of law, fight corruption and modernize its institutions.

She praised Ukraine’s “strength and resilience” in the face of Russia's “horrible and atrocious” invasion and said the EU would assist with the country's reconstruction.

___

RUSSIA SETS UP COMPANY TO SELL UKRAINE'S GRAIN

Russian-installed officials in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region have set up a company to buy up local grain and resell it on Moscow’s behalf, a local representative told the Interfax news agency on Saturday.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of stealing Ukraine's grain and causing a global food crisis that could cause millions of deaths from hunger.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of Zaporizhzhia's pro-Russian provisional administration, said the new state-owned grain company has taken control of several facilities.

He said “the grain will be Russian” and “we don't care who the buyer will be.”

It was not clear if the farmers whose grain was being sold by Russia were getting paid. Balitsky said his administration would not forcibly appropriate grain or pressure producers to sell it.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office accused Russia's military of shelling and burning grain fields ahead of the harvest. Andriy Yermak alleged Moscow is “trying to repeat” a Soviet-era famine which claimed the lives of over 3 million Ukrainians in 1932-33.

“Our soldiers are putting out the fires, but (Russia’s) 'food terrorism' must be stopped,” Yermak wrote Saturday on Telegram.

The accuracy of his and Balitsky's claims could not be independently verified.

___

RUSSIAN PASSPORTS FOR UKRAINE RESIDENTS

Russian forces occupying parts of southern Ukraine began handing out Russian passports to local residents Saturday.

In the Kherson region, 23 residents accepted Russian passports, including the new Moscow-installed governor, Russian state news agency its Moscow-installed governor, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

“For me, this is a truly historic moment. I have always thought that we are one country and one people,” the news agency quoted the governor, Volodymyr Saldo, as saying.

Russian forces also started awarding passports in the occupied city of Melitopol, according to Russian state news agency TASS agency. A Telegram post by TASS cited a Russian-installed local official as the original source of the information.

It did not specify how many residents had requested or received Russian citizenship.

Melitopol is located outside of the Donbas in the region of Zaporizhzhia, which is still held partly by Ukraine.

___

DEATH TOLL AMONG CHILDREN

Nearly 800 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday.

According to a statement by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, at least 287 children died as a result of military activity, while at least 492 more have been injured. The statement stressed the figures were not final and said they were based on investigations by juvenile prosecutors.

The office said children in Ukraine’s Donetsk province suffered the most, with 217 reported killed or injured, compared with 132 and 116, respectively, in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

06-11-22  11:46am - 831 days #183
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Contrary to popular belief, the defenders of the Alamo in the war for Texan independence—including Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William B. Travis—did not die under brilliant sunlight, defending their positions against hordes of Mexican infantry.

Instead, the American heroes of the Wild West moved to Scotland, where they hid in the shadowy caves and caverns of the Scottish Highlands, and transformed into secret vampire clans waging dark battles both deadly and passionate.

This is the true story of how Scotland became the heartland of champions who fought to preserve Britain's independence from Adolf Hitler, the secret father of Donald Trump, the man who is trying to make America great again in the vision of his father, The Fuhrer.

06-10-22  10:45pm - 832 days Original Post - #1
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I don't understand this. Geico must pay $5.2 million to woman who got HPV from sex in a man's insured car.

What does car insurance have to do with catching a sexual disease from having sex in a car?
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Geico must pay $5.2 million to woman who got HPV from sex in man's insured car, court rules
NBC Universal
David K. Li
June 9, 2022, 3:38 PM
Daniel Acker

Geico must pay a Missouri woman $5.2 million after she caught HPV from unprotected sex with her then-boyfriend in his insured automobile, a state appellate court ruled.

In an opinion published Tuesday, the Court of Appeals for the Western District of Missouri affirmed the multimillion-dollar payout against the insurance company, best known for its ubiquitous TV ads that frequently feature a talking gecko.

The woman — identified in court papers only as "M.O." — said that she "engaged in unprotected sexual activities in Insured's vehicle" in November and December 2017 and that he "negligently caused or contributed to" her catching the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection, court papers said.

After Geico turned down her claim, M.O. took the matter to an arbitrator, who found in her favor before a court affirmed the $5.2 million judgment, the appeals court said.

Geico appealed, claiming it never had a chance to contest the claim.

"But GEICO did have the opportunity to participate and defend its interests — including the ability to challenge liability and damages — by entering a defense of Insured," according to the appeals court opinion, which put the word "did" in bold italics.

The insurance company has "no right to relitigate those issues" now in appeal, the court said.

The company, based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, said in a statement Thursday that the case will be ultimately settled in federal court.

In federal court papers, Geico has said it never had any responsibility to defend the boyfriend, identified only as "M.B.," because it should be on the hook only for damages coming "out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the ... auto.”

"M.O.’s alleged damages have no nexus to the ownership, maintenance, or covered use of the 2014 Hyundai Genesis," the company said in a federal court filing last year.

"In other words, the vehicle’s covered use did not cause M.O.’s alleged injuries; instead, her injuries arose from an intervening cause — namely, her failure to prevent transmission of STDs by having unprotected sex."

06-10-22  10:36pm - 832 days #2
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To take advantage of Amazon Prime Day you need to be a member of Amazon Prime.
But Amazon offers a free 30-day trial, where you get all the benefits of an Amazon Prime membership.
So it's worthwhile joining for the 30 days, once they announce when the 2022 Amazon Prime Day will take place.

And then cancel the membership, before they start charging you, if you don't think the Amazon Prime membership is worth the cost.

The best-selling items from the sale last year were PS5, Xbox, and Switch games, Echo devices, Fire TV Sticks, Roomba Robot vaccums, Apple AirPods Pro, and Amazon Gift Cards ($10 extra for free when buying $40 worth). We're expecting each and everyone of these to see big discounts once again in 2022.

Plus lots of discounts on Amazon devices and other items.

06-10-22  12:46pm - 832 days #182
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White supremacists are revealing the truth: the CIA and the FBI, tasked with upholding the law, are behind the mass shootings that are terrifying our nation.
The CIA and the FBI hold weapons of mass destruction.
But they are killing people in the name of the law.
Can no one stop them?????
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White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media
Associated Press
AMANDA SEITZ
June 10, 2022, 10:46 AM
Scroll back up to restore default view.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.”

White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo.

Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues including abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months.

These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

“It seems intuitive that effective social media monitoring might provide clues to help law enforcement prevent attacks," German said. “After all, the white supremacist attackers in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and El Paso all gained access to materials online and expressed their hateful, violent intentions on social media.”

But, he continued, “so many false alarms drown out threats.”

DHS and the FBI are also working with state and local agencies to raise awareness about the increased threat around the U.S. in the coming months.

The heightened concern comes just weeks after a white 18-year-old entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, with the goal of killing as many Black patrons as possible. He gunned down 10.

That shooter claims to have been introduced to neo-Nazi websites and a livestream of the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings on the anonymous, online messaging board 4Chan. In 2018, the white man who gunned down 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue shared his antisemitic rants on Gab, a site that attracts extremists. The year before, a 21-year-old white man who killed 23 people at a Walmart in the largely Hispanic city of El Paso, Texas, shared his anti-immigrant hate on the messaging board 8Chan.

References to hate-filled ideologies are more elusive across mainstream platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram. To avoid detection from artificial intelligence-powered moderation, users don’t use obvious terms like “white genocide” or “white power” in conversation.

They signal their beliefs in other ways: a Christian cross emoji in their profile or words like “anglo” or “pilled,” a term embraced by far-right chatrooms, in usernames. Most recently, some of these accounts have borrowed the pop song “White Boy Summer” to cheer on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade, according to an analysis by Zignal Labs, a social media intelligence firm.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta banned praise and support for white nationalist and separatists movements in 2019 on company platforms, but the social media shift to subtlety makes it difficult to moderate the posts. Meta says it has more than 350 experts, with backgrounds from national security to radicalization research, dedicated to ridding the site of such hateful speech.

“We know these groups are determined to find new ways to try to evade our policies, and that’s why we invest in people and technology and work with outside experts to constantly update and improve our enforcement efforts,” David Tessler, the head of dangerous organizations and individuals policy for Meta, said in a statement.

A closer look reveals hundreds of posts steeped in sexist, antisemitic, racist and homophobic content.

In one Instagram post identified by The Associated Press, an account called White Primacy appeared to post a photo of a billboard that describes a common way Jewish people were exterminated during the Holocaust.

“We’re just 75 years since the gas chambers. So no, a billboard calling out bigotry against Jews isn’t an overreaction,” the pictured billboard said.

The caption of the post, however, denied gas chambers were used at all. The post’s comments were even worse: “If what they said really happened, we’d be in such a better place,” one user commented. “We’re going to finish what they started someday,” another wrote.

The account, which had more than 4,000 followers, was immediately removed Tuesday, after the AP asked Meta about it. Meta has banned posts that deny the Holocaust on its platform since 2020.

U.S. extremists are mimicking the social media strategy used by the Islamic State group, which turned to subtle language and images across Telegram, Facebook and YouTube a decade ago to evade the industry-wide crackdown of the terrorist group’s online presence, said Mia Bloom, a communications professor at Georgia State University.

“They’re trying to recruit,” said Bloom, who has researched social media use for both Islamic State terrorists and far-right extremists. “We’re starting to see some of the same patterns with ISIS and the far-right. The coded speech, the ways to evade AI. The groups were appealing to a younger and younger crowd.”

For example, on Instagram, one of the most popular apps for teens and young adults, white supremacists amplify each other’s content daily and point their followers to new accounts.

In recent weeks, a cluster of those accounts has turned its sights on Pride Month, with some calling for gay marriage to be “re-criminalized” and others using the #Pride or rainbow flag emoji to post homophobic memes.

Law enforcement agencies are already monitoring an active threat from a young Arizona man who says on his Telegram accounts that he is “leading the war” against retail giant Target for its Pride Month merchandise and children’s clothing line and has promised to “hunt LGBT supporters” at the stores. In videos posted to his Telegram and YouTube accounts, sometimes filmed at Target stores, he encourages others to go the stores as well.

Target said in a statement that it is working with local and national law enforcement agencies who are investigating the videos.

As society becomes more accepting of LGBTQ rights, the issue may be especially triggering for young men who have held traditional beliefs around relationships and marriage, Bloom said.

“That might explain the vulnerability to radical belief systems: A lot of the beliefs that they grew up with, that they held rather firmly, are being shaken,” she said. “That’s where it becomes an opportunity for these groups: They’re lashing out and they’re picking on things that are very different.”

___

Associated Press writer Ben Fox in Washington contributed to this report.

06-10-22  12:37pm - 832 days #181
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Donald Trump reveals the truth: He's the real President of the Untied States of Trumperland.
Sleepy Joe Biden, and the Democrats from Hell, stole the White House from God's annointed son on Earth, Donald Trump.
Former Attorney General William Barr is a low-down dirty coward and liar.
The Jan. 6 2021 riots were not riots, but a demonstration by loyal subjects of the Untied States to prevent Evil Democrats from destroying our beautiful nation.
Because Donald Trump, affectionately known as General Bonespurs, pleaded for the demonstrators to remain peaceful, he unknowingly let the Foul Democrats stab him in the back, and take the Whitest House away from him.
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Trump rails against Barr and Jan. 6 committee’s primetime hearing
Yahoo News
Dylan Stableford
June 10, 2022, 11:17 AM

Hours after the Jan. 6 committee said it had uncovered evidence that former President Donald Trump was at the center of the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, Trump lashed out at the panel’s primetime presentation.

In posts Friday on his fledgling social media platform Truth Social, Trump downplayed the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, and denied he incited it.

“The so-called ‘Rush on the Capitol’ was not caused by me, it was caused by a Rigged and Stolen Election!” he fumed.

Trump railed against former Attorney General William Barr, who was shown on video testifying to the bipartisan committee that he had told Trump repeatedly that his election fraud claims were “bulls***.”
President Trump and his post on social media. (Photo Illustration: Yahoo News; photo: AP, via Truth)
President Trump and his post on social media. (Photo Illustration: Yahoo News; photo: AP, via Truth)

“Bill Barr was a weak and frightened Attorney General who was always being ‘played’ and threatened by the Democrats and was scared stiff of being Impeached,” Trump wrote in one post. “How do you not get impeached? Do nothing, or say nothing, especially about the obviously RIGGED & STOLEN Election.”

“The Democrats hit pay dirt with Barr,” Trump continued. “He was stupid, ridiculously said there was no problem with the Election, & they left him alone.”

In another post, Trump referred to Barr as a “coward” who had specifically refused to investigate his claims of “rampant” fraud in Philadelphia.

The former president did not offer evidence to support his claims.
A makeshift gallows with an orange noose frames the U.S. Capitol.
A noose hangs on makeshift gallows on Jan. 6, 2021, as supporters of then-President Donald Trump storm the Capitol. (Photo by Andrew Caballero/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump disputed the assertion by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the committee’s vice chair, who said that testimony from his aides will show Trump was not concerned that his supporters were threatening Vice President Mike Pence’s life on Jan. 6. According to Cheney, when Trump learned they were chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” he said, "Maybe our supporters have the right idea," adding that Pence “deserves” it.

“I NEVER said, or even thought of saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence,’” Trump wrote. “This is either a made up story somebody looking to become a star, or FAKE NEWS!”
A large screen shows Ivanka Trump, with members of the Jan. 6 committee seated at the hearing beneath it.
The videotaped testimony of Ivanka Trump appears on a video screen during Thursday's hearing of the Jan. 6 committee. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Trump also seemed to shrug off video of testimony by his daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, who told the committee that she agreed with Barr that there was no evidence to support her father’s claims of election fraud, and that she “accepted” his loss.

“Ivanka was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results,” Trump wrote. “He had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!).”
_____
The rioters got within 2 doors of Vice President Mike Pence's office. See how in this 3D explainer from Yahoo Immersive.

06-09-22  06:30pm - 833 days #180
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GOP says everyone bears responsibility for the Jan. 6 2021 attack.
Therefore, no one is to blame.
Therefore, any member of the GOP must be arrested for treason.
This includes crazy Republican Congressmen and Republican Senators.
Justice for all.
Arrest all Republicans.
Put them in jail.
If we have the funds, pay for people to help their minds.
But transfer them to prison, once we have enough prisons to hold all Republicans.
End of story.
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McCarthy says 'everybody in the country' bears responsibility for Jan. 6 attack
Yahoo News
David Knowles
June 9, 2022, 12:38 PM

As the Jan. 6 select committee prepares to unveil some of the findings of its investigation into the riot at the Capitol by those who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday offered his spin on who was to blame for the attack: everyone.

During a news conference on Capitol Hill, McCarthy was asked whether he still agreed with his own public and private comments following the Jan. 6 riot that former President Donald Trump bore some of the responsibility for the violence.

“Look, I’ve answered that many times,” McCarthy responded. “I thought everybody in the country [bore] some responsibility based on what has been going on — the riots in the streets, the others." (He has made similar claims in the past.)

The attack itself was committed by a mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters, who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. So far, 306 of the 860 charged in connection with the riot have pleaded guilty. A number of Capitol Police officers were assaulted during attack, which followed Trump holding a nearby rally and urging his fans to “fight like hell” on behalf of his false claim that the election was stolen.

McCarthy’s comment was an apparent reference to the protests that gripped the country following the police killings of Black Americans in several cities in 2020. The violence that occurred in those demonstrations has provided Republicans with a line of argument to suggest that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was simply part of a larger pattern.

Last week, five Republicans — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding to know why, since the Department of Justice has charged 510 individuals in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, there hasn't been a similar effort to prosecute those who protested racial injustice.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a news conference on Thursday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

The letter states that “the potential unequal administration of justice with respect to certain protesters is particularly concerning.”

Three of the senators — Cruz, Scott and Tuberville — voted to object to the certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.

While all of the senators who sent the letter said they “fully support” to hold the Jan. 6 rioters accountable, they also expressed their worry that the administration of “unequal justice” regarding violent Black Lives Matter protesters.

Other Republicans have gone even further, suggesting that the protests over racial injustice were far worse than what transpired on Jan. 6. On Wednesday, Washington Commanders football coach Jack Del Rio told reporters, “I see the images on TV. People’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down — no problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down ... and we’re going to make that a major deal.”

Meanwhile, Trump continues to frame his efforts as legitimate despite the courts, state audits and independent investigations repeatedly dismissing his election conspiracies as baseless. On Thursday, Trump touted the events of that day in Herculean terms.

“The Unselect Committee didn’t spend one minute studying the reason that people went to Washington, D.C., in massive numbers, far greater than the Fake News Media is willing to report, or that the Unselects are willing to even mention, because January 6th was not a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump wrote in a statement. “It was about an Election that was Rigged and Stolen, and a Country that was about to go to HELL..& look at our Country now!”
Donald Trump
Donald Trump in Casper, Wyo., last month. (Chet Strange/Getty Images)

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released on May 25 found that 63% of Republicans still believe Trump's claim that the election was rigged against him, down from 69% who said they believed that falsehood when asked in January.

As for McCarthy, his views would seem to have shifted more dramatically. In April, the New York Times revealed that McCarthy said that Trump “bears responsibility for his words and actions” leading up to and on Jan. 6. Additionally, McCarthy told Republican colleagues that Trump had personally told him that “he does have some responsibility for what happened and he’d need to acknowledge that,” and that McCarthy was considering telling Trump that it was his “recommendation you should resign.”

McCarthy aims to be House speaker after the November elections and likely needs Trump’s support for his bid to be successful. He initially denied the report in the Times, but admitted to it after the Times published audio of his comments.

06-09-22  01:32pm - 833 days #179
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This is not right: a police officer has the right to defend himself.
And this officer was charged with second-degree murder, just because he shot a black man in the back of his head.
The mistake the officer made, was not getting all evidence of the shooting, and reviewing it before it was allowed out of his jurisdiction.

However, the case will go to court, where the police officer can establish his innocence.

Can Donald Trump, defender of the poor, testify at the trial, in the police officer's defense?
Everyone knows that Trump is a fan of law and order.
Except when the laws apply to Trump.
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Michigan officer charged with murder in Lyoya shooting
Associated Press
JOHN FLESHER and ED WHITE
June 9, 2022, 12:19 PM

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya, a Black man, with a shot to the back of his head has been charged with second-degree murder.

Prosecutor Chris Becker announced charges Thursday against Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr, weeks after Lyoya was killed following a chaotic traffic stop on April 4.

The 26-year-old Lyoya was on the ground when he was killed. The shooting was recorded on video by a bystander.

“The death was not justified or excused ... by self defense,” Becker said, referring to an element of second-degree murder.

Schurr, who is white, told Lyoya that he stopped his car because the license plate didn’t match the vehicle. Roughly a minute into the stop, Lyoya began to run after he was asked to produce a driver’s license.

Schurr caught him quickly, and the two struggled across a front lawn. The officer demanded that Lyoya “let go” of Schurr’s Taser before he fired the fatal shot.

Becker said he consulted experts from outside Michigan about the use of force in the case.

Attorney Ven Johnson in Detroit with at least one member of Lyoya’s family present said the prosecutor called Johnson and the family about two minutes before making the announcement that the officer is being charged.

“You will not see any celebration on behalf of the Lyoya family,” Johnson said.

The Grand Rapids police chief released video from four different sources on April 13. Attorneys for Lyoya’s family have called the death an “execution.”

Grand Rapids, population about 200,000, is 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Detroit.

Schurr has been a police officer since 2015. His personnel file shows no complaints of excessive force but much praise for traffic stops and foot chases that led to arrests and the seizure of guns and drugs.

The shooting turned into an immediate crisis for police Chief Eric Winstrom, who was a commander in Chicago before taking charge in Grand Rapids early in March.

At a community forum in April, Winstrom said he wanted to put more emphasis on officers knowing how to turn down the heat during tense situations.

“I guarantee that we can do more,” he said. “Actually, that’s one of the things I’ve already reached out to my colleagues to say, ‘Hey, I need some curriculum, because we are going to beef it up.’”

___

White reported from Detroit, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.

06-09-22  12:10pm - 833 days #178
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Hollywood's top execs are hoarding the gold in Hollywood.
Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav took home $246 million in compensation for 2021.
But not to worry: It's only money.
And Donald Trump, the man who knows how to make a deal, is coming to Hollywood to make sure that women are treated the way they should be. Donald is a firm supporter of women's rights.
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WrapPRO The Essential Source for Entertainment Insiders

Top row, from left: Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, and Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Bottom row, from left: Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. (Getty Images, Christopher Smith/TheWrap)
Why Hollywood CEOs Could Face a Payday Reckoning Next Year
by Joe Bel Bruno | June 9, 2022 @ 6:00 AM

Rebuking exorbitant chief executive pay is destined to be on the table at next year’s shareholder meetings amid lackluster earnings and a looming recession

Hollywood quietly achieved a record this year when it comes to the lucrative compensation packages awarded to CEOs running all the nation’s major television, movie, and streaming businesses — but it’s becoming clear that come next year, shareholders will take CEOs to task where it really hurts: their paychecks.

Hardly an eyebrow was raised when Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav took home $246 million in compensation for 2021, more than six times his 2020 pay (and well above his all-time high of $156.1 million in 2014). It was the most money paid to a studio CEO for one year’s work — and higher than the combined paychecks for the CEOs of Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Comcast, Lionsgate and Fox.
Continue reading

There’s growing sentiment that shareholders who have been begrudgingly complacent with $20 million to $50 million paydays seen in the past will soon change their tune. Exorbitant pay can be somewhat tolerated for companies making cash hand over fist, but those days might be coming to an end and a day of reckoning approaching.

“Compensation at $246 million is going to be hard to explain regardless of if they are making money,” one top investment executive at a major state pension fund that owns shares of both Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery in its portfolio told TheWrap. “We’ve had to grin and bear it for the most part when the company is making money. But, how do you explain a high compensation level when the company isn’t performing well?”

Managers of most pension funds must adhere to rules over the kind of companies they invest in for the retirement plans of public workers, this exec said, and there are bylaws and mandates about executive compensation levels. For example, a CEO might not surpass a certain amount unless the company is hitting similar performance for revenue and profit.

These institutional investors are the biggest target for shareholders rights groups, who in years past tried to build a coalition of investors for proxy battles on such hot-button issues as executive compensation. Earlier this year, three of those groups — Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis & Co., and Egan-Jones Proxy Services — recommended that clients reject Discovery’s compensation proposal for Zaslav despite closing the blockbuster $43 billion merger with WarnerMedia.

ISS called out the cable content provider as having “a long history of poor pay practices” and the 2021 amount was “disproportionate to company performance.”
Why Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav Could Fill Entertainment’s Celebrity CEO Void
Also Read:
Why Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav Could Fill Entertainment’s Celebrity CEO Void

Though all three declined to comment about future actions in the entertainment space, several fund managers told TheWrap they believe the shareholder rights groups will mount an even bigger campaign to curb top execs’ pay packages in 2022. While recent shareholder meetings were held online in abbreviated sessions due to COVID-19, they’re expected to be held in public again next year and that will have a huge impact.

Last week, Netflix’s annual meeting clocked in at 17 minutes and only had three investors take the virtual floor to introduce votes on shareholder proxy proposals. There was also no question and answer time, which can balloon general meetings to all-day affairs.

“Those can be sideshows, but from a financial standpoint we’re still looking in general at media and entertainment companies who have been untethered from reality for the last decade,” LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield said. “They have been unhinged from reality for so long that I’m almost numb to it, it’s in so many ways disturbing but nobody seems to care.”
Why No One Has Jumped at Buying ‘Bite-Sized’ Netflix Right Now
Also Read:
Why No One Has Jumped at Buying ‘Bite-Sized’ Netflix Right Now

There’s a perfect storm brewing that could draw attention to how much CEOs are paid, Greenfield said. Stock performance, the future of Hollywood’s streaming ambitions and how much advertising business can be drummed up during an expected downturn in the economy will all factor into how the sector performs. Entertainment conglomerates would be especially hard hit as TV advertisers reduce budgets, families cancel summer vacations to Disney World and Universal studios and more disruption ahead for streaming services.

“It’s about the downturn and how they navigate it,” Greenfield said. “Shareholders want to see returns.”

Wall Street may have more pain in store for the nation’s biggest entertainment players whose stock prices have been pummeled this year. The S&P 500 Media and Entertainment index, a key barometer for the sector, is already down 33% since last August’s all-time high.

Disney stock continues to flounder this year after CEO Bob Chapek came under sharp attack when the company announced his compensation package had doubled to $32.5 million.
Why Disney CEO Bob Chapek Gets Both an A and an F on His 2nd-Year Report Card
Also Read:
Why Disney CEO Bob Chapek Gets Both an A and an F on His 2nd-Year Report Card

This angered investors and employees since Chapek, whom disgruntled Disney staff started to call “Paychek” as a nickname, had made a series of major fumbles over the last year. The missteps ranged from alienating top talent like Scarlett Johansson, who sued the studio over her backend deal for the routed-to-streaming film “Black Widow,” to flubbing the company’s public response to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that now has become law. There was even speculation Chapek’s contract wouldn’t be renewed next year, and that former CEO Bob Iger would come back in. The company, and Iger, rejected that speculation.

The Economic Policy Institute reported that the median CEO compensation for U.S. companies reached $20 million in 2021, up 31% from the previous year. Much of that was due to a jump in stock awards and cash bonuses that were activated when the stock market surged.

The amount is a 31% increase from the previous year, and registers at 254 times more than the average worker made last year, according to the Equilar 100, which offers a broad look at CEO compensation among the largest companies by revenue.

Here’s a look at how several of Hollywood’s chief executives fared during 2021.
Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish made $20 million in 2021.

Sumner Redstone, the media mogul who built an entertainment empire with CBS and Viacom, was an executive known for keeping people guessing (even famously announcing that his daughter Shari Redstone would never succeed him, and then later appointing her to do just that). Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish, who credits Redstone with his success in the media world, must have learned a thing or two about keeping people guessing. This year he’s both hinted the company could be for sale and believes Paramount Global’s content factory makes it a rival to Disney.

Either way, shareholders have to appreciate that Bakish’s compensation of $20 million is among the lowest of Hollywood’s top CEOs. He’s still under pressure to jumpstart the company’s streaming assets for success as a standalone company — or push further into content to make Paramount too hard to pass up for a potential buyer. Shares of the company are down 27% this year, despite billionaire stock picker Warren Buffet’s $2.6 billion investment and reports of a sale.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek made $32.5 million in 2021.

Well, this year escalated quickly. It has only been four months since Disney CEO Bob Chapek was embroiled in multiple controversies at once: backlash over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, backlash after coming against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill from Gov. Ron DeSantis, backlash from LGBTQ employees and groups upset he didn’t do enough. With all this backlash, about his $32.5 million 2021 payday, calls for his firing resulted in a very combative first full year as CEO since Iger retired.

The noise has quieted down, but Chapek faces a pretty tough end of the year. Disney has already warned that its next two quarters will come in lower than expectations (the first half did better than the company expected, leaving the back half more uncertain). It will also be a tough slog for Chapek to collect a big compensation package for 2022 considering the stock price is down 40% in the past year, a stunning drop for a Dow Jones industrial average component.
Lionsgate Entertainment CEO made $19.1 million in 2021.

06-09-22  11:55am - 833 days #177
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FBI arrests Ryan Kelley, GOP candidate for Michigan governor.
The GOP is the party that wants to make America great again, by taking the White House away from Sleepy Joe Biden and giving it to Donald Trump.
And if the US voters voted for Biden instead of Trump, fuck the US voters.
Trump deserves the White House.
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FBI arrests Ryan Kelley, GOP candidate for Michigan governor, for his role in Capitol riot
Yahoo News
Christopher Wilson
June 9, 2022, 9:54 AM

Ryan Kelley, a Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

After the execution of a search warrant on his home in Allendale, Mich., Kelley was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. The arrest comes hours before the committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 is set to hold its first public hearing.

While the real estate broker had downplayed his involvement in the violence at the Capitol, analysis of multiple videos show Kelley on the steps outside the building rallying the crowd. Last summer, the Michigan Democratic Party promoted a video of Kelley at the time, saying, “Come on, let’s go! This is it! This is — this is war, baby!”
Ryan Kelley at the podium, with a column in the background.
Ryan Kelley, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, speaks a rally on Feb. 8 outside the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to conservative activists demanding a new investigation into former President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential race. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)

“As far as going through any barricades, or doing anything like that, I never took part in any forceful anything,” Kelley told MLive in March 2021, after launching his campaign. “Once things started getting crazy, I left.”

According to the statement of facts supporting the criminal complaint against Kelley, the FBI first began receiving tips about Kelley’s involvement in the weeks after the violence of Jan. 6. The document states that an FBI agent interviewed Kelley in an attempt to confirm his identity.

Kelley has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, knowingly engaging in an act of physical violence against person or property in a restricted building or grounds and willfully injuring or committing any depredation against a property of the United States.

Kelley is among the many Michigan GOP members challenging Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer in this fall’s midterm election. Five potential candidates were disqualified for submitting too many fraudulent signatures, but Kelly is likely to be one of five remaining Republicans on the ballot for the August primary. His previous experience of office was on his local township’s planning commission.

Kelley also helped organize armed protests against Whitmer’s COVID measures and fought to keep a Confederate statue in the Union state.

"To me that’s one step closer to being able to tear down other things that represent our history, like the Constitution. And that’s a scary thing, right?" Kelley told WWMT news in June 2020, during the protests following the death of George Floyd. "We need to celebrate our history, to remember our history, and why the freedom of slavery happened. It’s because it’s wrong in every capacity. So if we continue to tear down things like this and erase our history, when do we erase the Constitution?"
The rioters got within 2 doors of Vice President Mike Pence's office. See how in this 3D explainer from Yahoo Immersive.

06-08-22  06:08pm - 834 days #176
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Memphis Tennessee politicians object to police escort for Donald Trump, citing Trump's habit of not paying for the police escort.
That's one reason Donald Trump is so rich: he's an expert at stiffing people he owes money to.
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HuffPost
Memphis Politicians Object To Police Escort At Trump Rally, Citing Unpaid Bills
Mary Papenfuss
Mon, June 6, 2022 at 6:18 PM

Members of the city council of Memphis, Tennessee, object to the city paying for police to escort Donald Trump to a nearby rally later this month because the former president doesn’t pay his bills.

“He’s notorious for not paying,” Democratic City Council Member Martavius Jones noted last week to NBC affiliate Action News 5 in Memphis.

“When you talk about these rallies, there are huge expenses that various jurisdictions have to pay, and these expenditures are not being reimbursed by the Trump campaign or Trump organization,” he added.

The Center for Public Integrity reported in 2020 that Trump owed nearly $2 million at that time to 14 different police agencies and local governments for the services they provided at his rallies.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, officials were so frustrated last year with a long-overdue $211,000 debt owed by the Trump campaign that they sent the bill directly to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

El Paso, Texas, officials told KXAN-TV just last month that they’re still awaiting a $570,000 payment for the cost of a Trump reelection rally in 2019.

The Trump rally on June 18 will be held in Southhaven, Mississippi, which is about a 20-minute drive from the Memphis airport.

Jones and fellow Council Member JB Smiley, who’s running for Tennessee governor, plan to introduce a resolution Tuesday to the full council asking the Memphis Police Department not to provide any manpower or other resources for Trump’s appearance.

“As we know, the Memphis Police Department is already experiencing a shortage of officers to patrol our communities. I do not believe that it is a prudent use of police manpower and Memphians’ taxpayer dollars to escort the former president to an event in Mississippi,” Smiley said in a statement.

“He’s no longer the president. He has a Secret Service detail, I think that’s sufficient,” Smiley told Action News.

Larry Ward, a spokesperson for Trump’s rally organizer, The American Freedom Tour, said the councilmen’s proposal is “mean-spirited, partisan, preposterous and penurious.”

A Memphis Police Department spokesperson told Action News 5 that if the police are “asked to assist any federal partner regarding the safety of a group or individual, we will assist.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Related...

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Albuquerque Sends Overdue $211,000 Trump Campaign Bill Direct To Mar-a-Lago

Tucson Mayor Calls Out Trump Over $80,000 Rally Debt Before New Superspreader Event

Trump set to undergo questioning in July in NY civil probe
Associated Press

06-08-22  05:42pm - 834 days #175
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NY Republican has conspiracy posts under his name.
Denies he posted them.
Says that he is innocent.
He is just like Trump, the most honest Republican the world has ever seen.
The GOP is the party of the loonies, rich and poor, who will defend America against the Evil Invaders From Outer Space.
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NY House candidate posts about mass shooting conspiracies
Associated Press
MICHELLE L. PRICE
June 8, 2022, 1:00 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York Republican running to represent a congressional district that includes suburbs of Buffalo, New York, shared and deleted a conspiracy-laden Facebook post suggesting a racist mass shooting in Buffalo and other mass killings were part of a plot to take away people's guns.

The lengthy June 1 post shared by Buffalo developer Carl Paladino said in almost every mass shooting, including the shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo last month and a shooting at a Texas elementary school, “there are strange occurrences that are never fully explained.”

The post also included theories about CIA mind-control and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and John Lennon, and vaccines.

Reached on his cellphone Wednesday by The Associated Press, Paladino said “That’s all water under the bridge,” and “I didn’t write it,” before hanging up. He did not answer a call back.

The politician on Tuesday initially told The Buffalo News and WIVB-TV in interviews that he did not personally make the post and it was posted by someone else who had access to his account.

But in a follow-up interview with the Buffalo News on Wednesday, he changed his story and said, “Yes, I did it.”

“I just didn’t remember the fact that I published it; I couldn’t remember. It was written by Jeff Briggs, a good friend from Rochester. I published it because he is a friend,” he said.
Video: NYC mayor urges Congress to pass gun safety bills

Paladino told the newspaper that on Wednesday he recalled that he only “scanned” the post before sharing it and that he sometimes passes on materials with which he does not agree. He said he does not subscribe to the “conspiracy theories” in the post but accepted some of its points.

It was not clear which points he accepted.

Paladino was on the Buffalo School Board in December 2016 when he wrote that he wanted to see President Barack Obama dead of mad cow disease and first lady Michelle Obama “return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”

Amid an uproar, he said the comments, published in the local Artvoice newspaper, were not meant for publication but he called them “inappropriate” nevertheless.

The state education commissioner removed Paladino from the Buffalo School Board soon after for disclosing confidential school board business.

During his unsuccessful run for governor in 2010, Paladino apologized for forwarding emails to friends that included racist jokes and pornography.

Paladino is now running in a district currently held by Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs, who announced last week he would not seek reelection after facing backlash from his own party for voicing support for new gun control measures. Jacobs, in the wake of recent mass shootings, said he would vote for a federal assault weapons ban and other measures if he had a chance and expressed support for limiting magazine capacity, banning body armor for civilians and raising the age limit to purchase semi-automatic weapons to 21.

Jacobs currently represents New York’s 27th Congressional District, but was running for the newly redrawn 23rd District. Before his comments on gun control, he was considered a favorite in the new district, which includes large swaths of new voters, including rural counties.

Shortly after Jacobs announcement last week that he would not run, Paladino was endorsed by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of GOP leadership and rising star in the party.

Stefanik’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Paladino's post.

___

Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York contributed to this report.

06-08-22  12:40pm - 834 days #174
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The FBI is being sued for $1B+ over Nassar.
Former Olympic gymnasts say the FBI didn't do its job.
The FBI knew, in 2015, that Nassar was accused of molesting gymnasts.
But did nothing to stop him.
The FBI is proud and strong. That's why they whitewashed Brett Kanvanaugh in his Supreme Court investigation. Molesting women is a man's duty, the FBI says, standing proud with Donald Trump, the man who says if you're a real man, grab women by the pussy.
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Simone Biles, others seek $1B-plus from FBI over Nassar
Associated Press
ED WHITE
June 8, 2022, 4:40 AM

DETROIT (AP) — Former Olympic gymnasts, including gold medalist Simone Biles, are among dozens of assault victims who are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop sports doctor Larry Nassar, lawyers said Wednesday.

There's no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of molesting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year.

"It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” said Maggie Nichols, a national champion gymnast at Oklahoma in 2017-19.

Under federal law, a government agency has six months to respond to the tort claims filed Wednesday. Lawsuits could follow, depending on the FBI’s response. The Justice Department said in May that it would not pursue criminal charges against former FBI agents who failed to quickly open an investigation.

The approximately 90 claimants include Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medalists, according to Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a California law firm.

"If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy.
Dr. Larry Nassar. (AP)
Dr. Larry Nassar. (AP)

Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics told local FBI agents in 2015 that three gymnasts said they were assaulted by Nassar, a team doctor. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the Justice Department's inspector general, an internal watchdog.

Los Angeles FBI agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn’t alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.

Nassar wasn’t arrested until fall 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police. He was a doctor at Michigan State.

The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case. He is serving decades in prison.

The FBI declined to comment in April when a smaller batch of claims was filed, referring instead to Director Christopher Wray’s remarks to Congress in 2021.

“I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable,” Wray told victims at a Senate hearing.

Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.

06-08-22  12:29pm - 834 days #173
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Donald Trump, the wealthiest President of the Untied States of Trumperland we've ever known, has a problem in reporting foreign gifts.
But not to worry.
Trump has so much money, he doesn't need to report gifts, even though the law says he's supposed to.

The gifts included a bottle of whiskey worth $5,800, which Japanese officials gave then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before it mysteriously vanished.

If the gifts vanished mysteriously, then no one can be blamed.
And you can't sue the government for fraud: because that's just politics as usual.
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House panel probes 'serious deficiencies' in Trump’s accounting of foreign gifts
NBC Universal
Zoë Richards
June 7, 2022, 2:30 PM

A House committee on Tuesday announced an investigation into former President Donald Trump over his administration's apparent failure to properly record gifts from foreign government officials as required by law.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., sent a letter Monday to the National Archives seeking documents about "mismanaged gifts" received from foreign government officials while Trump was in office. She said the committee's concerns stem from information recently provided by the State Department.

“These revelations raise concerns about the potential for undue influence over former President Trump by foreign governments,” Maloney wrote.

The committee said that in a briefing last month on the tracking and reporting process for White House gifts, the State Department informed it of "serious deficiencies in that process during the Trump Administration."

CNN first reported on the investigation.

In April, the State Department said missing data from the White House prevented it from compiling a satisfactory accounting of gifts foreign governments presented to Trump and other U.S. officials in 2020.

Trump accepted multiple gifts from foreign sources

Maloney said in her letter that the Trump administration's failed tabulation of gifts may have threatened U.S. national security and foreign policy interests and may have violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from keeping gifts for personal use if they exceed the "minimal value," which is currently $415.

Trump accepted multiple gifts from foreign sources in 2020, but the gifts appear to be missing from the State Department’s list of foreign gifts, which it's required to compile.

After gifts disappeared from the State Department vault in the final weeks of Trump's presidency, the State Department's Office of the Inspector General said it would investigate whether some of Trump's political appointees had taken taxpayer-funded presents home with them, noting that the dollar value of the missing gifts was "significant."

The gifts included a bottle of whiskey worth $5,800, which Japanese officials gave then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before it mysteriously vanished.

In her letter, Maloney cited other gifts, such as a Louis Vuitton golf bag and photographs from French President Emmanuel Macron allegedly valued at more than $8,200 and a gold-framed portrait of Trump from the prime minister of Vietnam valued at more than $3,000.

Maloney requested all documents and communications related to foreign gifts received by Trump, his family members and White House staff members by June 20.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

House Democrats have launched other investigations into the Trump administration after his presidency ended. While he was in office, congressional Democrats tried unsuccessfully to sue Trump over alleged violations of the emoluments clause, arguing that he broke the law with his businesses, particularly with Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

06-08-22  02:33am - 834 days Original Post - #1
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Before the raffle draw on Jun 8, could you check the count for:

pinkerton submitted 4 reviews, some of which should get extra points.
Only 3 reviews were counted, apparently.

avgazn86 submitted 2 reviews, which were somehow overlooked.

I'm only mentioning this because the Tally For June 8, 2022 Raffle UPDATED JUNE 6TH seems to be incorrect.

06-08-22  12:33am - 835 days #172
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Trump and his allies reveal the truth: black people are the ones who kill people.
Guns are not responsible. It's the black people.
And we only need one door to enter a school.
Too many doors, and we get people dying.
Sell more guns to the cops and teachers, and we can stop the violence.
Let's make America great again. Make America white. And free.
And now we have a black woman on the Supreme Court.
She will bring America down.
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Trump-backed Senate candidate Blake Masters blames gun violence on Black people
NBC Universal
Janelle Griffith
June 7, 2022, 8:19 AM

Blake Masters, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Arizona who was recently endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said on a podcast this year that "Black people, frankly" are to blame for America's gun violence problem.

"We do have a gun violence problem in this country, and it's gang violence," Masters said on "The Jeff Oravits Show" in April. "It's gangs. It's people in Chicago, St. Louis shooting each other. Very often, you know, Black people, frankly. And the Democrats don't want to do anything about that."

Masters also claimed Democrats "are weak on crime" and "don't like the Second Amendment" because "it frankly blocks a lot of their plans for us."

During the same podcast, when asked what he thought about President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman confirmed to the court, Masters said she was "a horrible pick" and that she was an "affirmative action candidate."

Masters did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

Masters has promoted Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He has also repeatedly echoed the "great replacement theory" — a white supremacist conspiracy theory that there is a plot to diminish the influence of white people in the U.S. — by baselessly claiming that Democrats want to grant amnesty to thousands of immigrants in order to "make them voters."

Last month, a white, 18-year-old gunman who is believed to have subscribed to the "great replacement theory" opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and injuring three, almost all of them Black, authorities said. Authorities have described the incident as a racially motivated hate crime.

Less than two weeks later, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers and injured more than a dozen others at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

A number of Republicans have singled out large cities when questioned about whether stricter gun laws would prevent mass shootings.

During a news conference about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott pointed to Chicago as an example of why tough gun laws fail to prevent gun violence.

Abbott blamed the shooting on a mental health crisis.

"We need to realize that people who think that, 'Well, maybe if we could just implement tougher gun laws, it's going to solve it,' Chicago and L.A. and New York disprove that thesis," Abbott said at a May 25 news conference.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot both condemned his remarks.

"Shame on you, @GovAbbott," Pritzker tweeted, linking to a report that a majority of guns used in Chicago crimes came from outside of Illinois. "Don't feed into the false narrative about Chicago and Illinois — it's an excuse that politicians like you hide behind to stop the federal legislation we need to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people."

"You are lying about Chicago and what actually perpetuates gun violence. The majority of guns used in Chicago shootings come from states with lax gun laws," Pritzker added. "Do better. You have 19 kids and two teachers who deserve our best."

06-07-22  11:58am - 835 days #171
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Donald Trump exposed as man who schemed to take the White House from Sleepy Joe Biden.
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The Hill
Email shows fake Trump electors in Georgia told to conduct plan in ‘secrecy’
Monique Beals
Mon, June 6, 2022 at 8:26 PM

A Trump campaign staffer instructed a group of Republicans in Georgia who were planning to cast Electoral College votes for former President Trump to conduct the plan in “complete secrecy,” according to an email obtained by media outlets.

The Washington Post and CNN reported Monday evening that the email, written by Trump campaign Georgia operations director Robert Sinners, instructed the fake electors to tell security at the state capitol that they had appointments with two state senators.

“I must ask for your complete discretion in this process,” Sinners wrote.

“Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result — a win in Georgia for President Trump — but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion,” Sinners wrote.

The Post reported that the email was sent on Dec. 13, 2020, and instructed the electors not to “mention anything to do with Presidential Electors or speak to the media.”

The Hill has reached out to a representative for Trump and to the former president’s campaign for comment.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in January that the Department of Justice was investigating fake electors who supported Trump.

Fake documents were sent to the National Archives in December alleging electors for the Electoral College supported Trump in seven states President Biden had won.

People from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have since been subpoenaed to appear before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack for their involvement with the alleged scheme.

The Jan. 6 committee is likely to highlight the newly uncovered email by a former Trump campaign staffer to fake electors during a prime-time hearing on Thursday, the Post noted.

Sinners said in a statement that he was working on behalf of senior campaign officials and senior Republicans in the state and was “advised by attorneys that this was necessary in order to preserve the pending legal challenge,” according to the Post.

Attorneys for Trump had for months after the 2020 election embarked on an ineffective legal campaign across the country in an attempt to overturn Biden’s victory, which ultimately failed.

Sinners now works for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who recently fended off a Trump-backed primary challenger after Raffensperger refused to take up the former president’s effort to overturn the presidential election in the state, and he added that his “views on the matter have changed significantly from where they were on December 13th.”

06-07-22  03:16am - 835 days #170
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Although Donald Trump is not a lawyer, he is an expert in how to make a deal.
So he has offered to step in on Neve Campbell's side to ensure she gets her fair salary in the Scream 6 movie.
Donald Trump is famous for knowing how to treat women.
His classic remark, that he's allowed to grab women by the pussy because he's famous, shows the power of the Trump brand.
Once the producers of the Scream franchise realize that Donald Trump has entered negotiations on Neve Campbell's side, they will fold and give her the salary she deserves.
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Neve Campbell out of 'Scream 6' over salary dispute: 'Did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise'
Yahoo Celebrity
Raechal Shewfelt
June 6, 2022, 2:32 PM

Neve Campbell won't be playing Scream's original victim, Sidney Prescott, in next year's Scream 6.

"Sadly, I won't be making the next Scream film," Yahoo Entertainment confirmed that she said, as first reported by Deadline. "As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream. I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise. It's been a very difficult decision to move on. To all my Scream fans, I love you. You've always been so incredibly supportive to me. I'm forever grateful to you and to what this franchise has given me over the past 25 years."

Neve Campbell has starred in the Scream franchise since it premiered in 1996. (Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Los Angeles Confidential)

Campbell, who currently stars on Netflix's series The Lincoln Lawyer, portrayed Prescott in the first three films in the horror franchise, released between 1996 and 2000, before returning for Scream 4 in 2011 and in this year's Scream. The next installment, 2023's Scream 6, is expected to co-star Courteney Cox, another original cast member, as well as Hayden Panettiere, who also starred in Scream 4. (Campbell was not involved in the Scream TV series, which aired from 2015 to 2019.)

The latest Scream movie cost $25 million to make and brought in $140 million at the worldwide box office, according to Variety. While Campbell did not specify the salary that she was offered, she mentioned in an October 2020 conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis, who played Michael Myers's victim Laurie Strode in the successful Halloween franchise, for that publication, that it had not been on par with what the men in smash hit franchises had been paid.

"The industry has no problem when a man makes millions of dollars on something that's a franchise," Curtis said. "We as a society go, 'Good on ya!' But then if a woman says, 'Well, I would like that same piece of the pie,' I think people would think you’re being greedy, or you're not being grateful. As if somehow we as women have to be just grateful for the opportunity. Which we already explained we are!"

To which Campbell responded, "We would like to make equal."

"We have both worked for many, many, many years to continue our careers," Curtis said. "At some point it's OK to say, 'No, I'm going to get paid this or I'm not going to be able to play in your sandbox.'

Campbell said then that she "did all right" with Scream 3, but did not get a back-end deal, which would have given her a cut of the movie's profits.

06-06-22  10:10am - 836 days #169
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Russian President Vlad Putin has the same name as Dracula, the greatest warrior the world has ever known. That is why Putin is trying to take over the world. With the help of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, Dictator for Life of North Korea, Putin will soon invade the Untied States of Trumperland, where he will declare victory in less than 10 days. Stay tuned for updates on when Putin will invade. There could be shortages of bread and water in both the Untied States and in Puerto Rico, where Senator Ted Cruz will be hiding.

Also, Putin has announced that it has fired underwater supersonic hydroplane missiles at the NATO forces in the Baltic Sea. They will explode shortly.
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Russia-Ukraine war latest: NATO kicks off U.S.-led war games in Baltic Sea
Yahoo News
Niamh Cavanagh
June 6, 2022, 7:15 AM

LONDON — It has been 102 days since Russia began its brutal invasion of Ukraine. Despite tensions rising, NATO began naval exercises in the Baltic Sea along with aspiring members Finland and Sweden. Spain and the U.K. promised Kyiv weaponry, and Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated with a warning that Moscow would hit new targets if it continued.
NATO’s war games
Large warship beneath cloudy skies against a background of a city skyline.
Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge of the U.S. Navy in a harbor in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday. (Reinaldo Ubilla/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

On Sunday, NATO kicked off a two-week naval exercise in the Baltic Sea that includes more than 7,000 marines, airmen and sailors from 16 countries including Finland and Sweden — who officially applied to the international alliance last month.

Over 45 ships and more than 75 aircraft are also taking part in the Baltic operations coined BALTOPS 22. The U.S.-led games, which began in 1972, are reportedly not in response to any specific threat.

“In past iterations of BALTOPS we’ve talked about meeting the challenges of tomorrow,” Vice Adm. Gene Black, commander of the Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO and U.S. 6th Fleet, said. “Those challenges are upon us — in the here and now.”

He added: “BALTOPS 22 highlights our past investments and shows our collective partnership and capabilities as we recognize the importance of ‘freedom of the seas’ and the vital role the Baltic plays in European prosperity.”
Putin’s warning
Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin delivers an address to the participants of the Bolshaya Peremena All-Russian contest for school students through a video link on June 1. (Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP/AFP via Getty Images)

Putin issued a stark warning on Sunday that the military would strike new targets if the West continued to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles. Speaking on Russian-state TV, Rossiya-1, the Kremlin leader said: “We will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting.” However, Putin did not specify what those targets were.
Military assistance

The Ukrainian military is expected to receive more weapons from both Spain and Britain. On Sunday, the Madrid-based newspaper El Pais reported that government sources in Spain said that Leopard battle tanks and antiaircraft missiles would be sent to Ukraine in a bid to step up Spain’s military support to the country. Meanwhile, the U.K. is expected to donate several M270 multiple launch rocket systems — which can strike targets up to 50 miles away.

Despite Putin’s warning, the U.K.’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, argued that the assistance is justified. “As Russia’s tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine,” he said. “If the international community continues its support, I believe Ukraine can win.”
Zelensky visits frontline
Volodymyr Zelensky, wearing a T-shirt and cargo pants, looks into the eyes of a service member as he shakes the hand, near five other service members, all wearing battle fatigues.
Working trip of the President of Ukraine to the Zaporizhzhia region and Donbas on Sunday. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited soldiers on the frontlines in the east of Ukraine on Sunday. He met troops in the Donbas region and met with fighters in Lysychansk, which is situated across from Severodonetsk — where Ukrainians are fighting back against Russian forces.

“I want to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting all of us, our state,” Zelensky told soldiers. “I am grateful to everyone. Take care of yourselves!”

06-06-22  04:04am - 836 days #168
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Over 50 feared dead in Nigeria church attack, officials say
Associated Press
CHINEDU ASADU
June 5, 2022, 12:23 PM

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on worshippers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday, leaving dozens feared dead, state lawmakers said.

The attackers targeted the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said. Among the dead were many children, he said.

The presiding priest was abducted as well, said Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents the Owo area in Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber.

“Our hearts are heavy," Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu tweeted Sunday. “Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of the people.”

Authorities did not immediately release an official death toll. Timileyin said at least 50 people had been killed, though others put the figure higher. Videos appearing to be from the scene of the attack showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said “only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act,” according to a statement from his spokesman.

“No matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light. Nigeria will eventually win,” said Buhari, who was elected after vowing to end Nigeria’s prolonged security crisis.

In Rome, Pope Francis responded to news of the attack.

“The pope has learned of the attack on the church in Ondo, Nigeria and the deaths of dozens of worshippers, many children, during the celebration of Pentecost. While the details are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration, and entrusts them both to the Lord so that he may send his spirit to console them,” the pope said in a statement issued by the Vatican press office.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the church. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria's most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in a rising violent conflict between farmers and herders.

Nigeria's security forces did not immediately respond to questions about how the attack occurred or if there are any leads about suspects. Owo is about 345 kilometers (215 miles) east of Lagos.

“In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident," said lawmaker Oluwole. “This is too much.”

06-06-22  04:00am - 836 days #167
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Students of color push back on calls for police in schools
Associated Press
ANNIE MA
June 5, 2022, 8:17 AM

Graduating senior from Enloe High School Malika Mobley has concerns about proposed increases in police presence in schools following the recent Texas school shooting, Thursday, June 3, 2022, in Raleigh, N.C. To reassure students and educators following the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, districts around the country pledged to boost security measures and increased the presence of law enforcement on campus. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
Graduating senior from Enloe High School Malika Mobley has concerns about proposed increases in police presence in schools following the recent Texas school shooting, Thursday, June 3, 2022, in Raleigh, N.C. To reassure students and educators following the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, districts around the country pledged to boost security measures and increased the presence of law enforcement on campus. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
Graduating senior from Enloe High School Malika Mobley has concerns about proposed increases in police presence in schools following the recent Texas school shooting, Thursday, June 3, 2022, in Raleigh, N.C. To reassure students and educators following the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, districts around the country pledged to boost security measures and increased the presence of law enforcement on campus. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
Graduating senior from Enloe High School Malika Mobley has concerns about proposed increases in police presence in schools following the recent Texas school shooting, Thursday, June 3, 2022, in Raleigh, N.C. To reassure students and educators following the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, districts around the country pledged to boost security measures and increased the presence of law enforcement on campus. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
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Students of color push back on calls for police in schools
Graduating senior from Enloe High School Malika Mobley has concerns about proposed increases in police presence in schools following the recent Texas school shooting, Thursday, June 3, 2022, in Raleigh, N.C. To reassure students and educators following the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, districts around the country pledged to boost security measures and increased the presence of law enforcement on campus. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
ASSOCIATED PRESS

After the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, schools around the country pledged to boost security measures and increased the presence of law enforcement on campus — partly to reassure parents and students.

But police inside schools can make some students more uneasy, not less. Especially for Black students and other students of color, their personal experiences with policing can leave them feeling unsafe and alienated from school when they see officers on campus.

High school senior Malika Mobley has seen three different school resource officers patrolling the campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. Once on the way home from school, Mobley saw officers detain a visibly distraught classmate and push the student into the back of a police vehicle.

“They were crying, ‘Why are you doing this to me? I didn’t do anything,'” said Mobley, co-president of Wake County Black Student Coalition. “I was just forced to stand there and couldn't do anything.”

Since 2020, the student group has advocated for eliminating police officers from school buildings in favor of investing in counselors and support staff for students.

“We don’t see police presence as part of the solution,” Mobley said. “If you really think about why police don’t make us safer, you can draw connections to all types of tragedies that impact the most marginalized among us.”

Police officers have a regular presence at schools across the country in recent decades, often in the form of school resource officers, who are tasked with building relationships with young people to promote trust of law enforcement, providing security, and enforcing laws. Critics say having armed police on campus often results in Black students being disproportionately arrested and punished, leading to what they call the school-to-prison pipeline.

Researchers have found that Black students report feeling less safe around police officers than their white peers and that officers in predominantly Black school districts were more likely to view students themselves to be threats.

Black students and other students of color also are disproportionately likely to have negative interactions with police in schools, ranging from referrals to law enforcement to being arrested or restrained, said Katherine Dunn, director of the Opportunity to Learn program at the Advancement Project. Since 2007, the Advancement Project has documented at least 200 instances of officers at schools assaulting students, she said.

“It shows all the physical harms that young people experience by police," she said. "It's also the experience of being degraded and made to feel like a criminal because you have to walk down the hallway to your class with several armed cops, who are not there for your safety, who you see arrest your friends, assault your friends.”

In 2018, after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the state Legislature passed laws mandating public schools to have either law enforcement or armed personnel present on campuses.

A study of the law's impact by F. Chris Curran, a University of Florida professor, found the expanded police presence was followed by an increase in school arrests and the number of reported behavioral incidents. He said there are many factors to consider in deciding the role police play in schools.

“I'd like to see that conversation include thoughtful considerations of potential benefits, decreasing certain kinds of behaviors, but also the potential unintended consequences, if that's increasing the likelihood students are arrested or potentially increasing racial disparities in discipline and arrest rates,” Curran said.

While there are examples of school resource officers who have intervened in incidents of gun violence, Curran said, the presence of law enforcement does not always guarantee that shootings or other violence won't occur, or that the officer would be immediately effective at stopping the perpetrator and minimizing casualties.

In a statement issued this week on best practices for school security in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting, the National Association of School Resource Officers emphasized the importance of having “a carefully selected, specifically trained SRO on its campus whenever school is in session.”

The nonprofit group has rejected criticism that officers contribute to a school-to-prison pipeline. Officers who follow its best practices, it says, do not arrest students for disciplinary issues that would be handled ordinarily by educators.

As elsewhere around the country last week, the police presence was increased outside schools across North Carolina to provide reassurance to families in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas shooting.

Wake County schools have 75 school resource officers, drawn from several local law enforcement agencies.

The Wake County Black Student Coalition's campaign to remove the officers stemmed partly from student accounts of bad experiences with officers, including a 2017 incident where a school resource officer was filmed picking up a Black girl and slamming her to the ground, said Chalina Morgan-Lopez, a high school senior who is co-president of the student group.

“I think it's a reasonable response to want more officers in schools, especially from people who genuinely do feel protected by law enforcement, even though that's not my lived experience," Morgan-Lopez said. "But I think people need to take into account ... that officers do in fact do more harm than they do good."

Last summer the school system made several changes to its school resource officer program, including a new process for fielding grievances involving officers and adjustments to training to prepare them better for the school environment, said Lisa Luten, a spokesperson for the school system. The review was based on community feedback the district sought in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Luten said.

“This is not a new conversation for us," she said. “That certainly brought it back to light.”

___

Ma, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, writes about education and equity for AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/anniema15

___

The Associated Press’ reporting around issues of race and ethnicity is supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

06-06-22  03:57am - 836 days #166
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Putin warns the West: Do not interfere with our war in Ukraine.
If you get in the way, we will bury you.
Putin is meeting with Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un (Glorious Leader of North Korea) and other people of importance) on how best to invade the Untied States of Trumperland and other areas of resistance.
Donald Trump is central to these plans, since he has inside information on the defenses of the Untied States obtained while he was president.
Donald Trump has a hard-on for Sleepy Joe Biden, who stole the Whtie House away from Donald, the true owner of the Whtie House.
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Putin warns West: Russia will strike harder if longer-range missiles supplied
Reuters
June 5, 2022, 7:07 AM

LONDON (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin warned the West that Russia would strike new targets if the United States started supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles, the TASS news agency reported on Sunday.

If such missiles are supplied, "we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting," Putin was quoted as saying in an excerpt of an interview with Rossiya-1 state television channel.

Putin did not name the targets Russia planned to pursue if Western countries began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles. He said the "fuss" around Western weapon supplies to Ukraine was designed to drag out the conflict.

Ukraine has been seeking Multiple Rocket Launch Systems (MLRS) such as the M270 and M142 HIMARS to strike troops and weapons stockpiles at the Russian forces' rear.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans this week to give Ukraine precision HIMARS rocket systems after receiving assurances from Kyiv that it would not use them to hit targets inside Russia.

Although Russian officials have warned that the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with advanced rocket systems could exacerbate the conflict, Putin said it would not bring on any fundamental changes on the battlefield.

"We understand that this supply (of advance rocket systems) from the United States and some other countries is meant to make up for the losses of this military equipment," Putin said.

"This is nothing new. It doesn't change anything in essence."

In an excerpt of the same interview aired on Saturday, Putin boasted that Russian anti-aircraft forces have shot down dozens of Ukrainian weapons and are "cracking them like nuts."

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

06-06-22  03:49am - 836 days #165
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Rats deserting a sinking ship.
Some GOP politicians are saying that Trump is not Jesus on Earth.
That Trump has flaws.
That Trump deserved to be impeached for the Capitol riots in January 2021.
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GOP Rep. Tom Rice says impeaching Trump was 'the conservative vote'
ABC News
BENJAMIN SIEGEL
June 5, 2022, 6:21 AM

South Carolina's Tom Rice was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Now, as Rice fights an uphill battle for his political life in the heart of Trump country, he is standing by that choice — calling it “the conservative vote” in an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday on "This Week."

“I did it then. And I would do it again tomorrow," Rice said.

Rice said Trump deserved to be impeached for potentially endangering former Vice President Mike Pence and his family at the Capitol and not acting more quickly to stop the deadly riot as it unfolded last year.

“When he watched the Capitol, the ‘People's House,’ being sacked, when he watched the Capitol Police officers being beaten for three or four hours and lifted not one thing or to stop it — I was livid then and I’m livid today about it,” Rice recalled. “And it was very clear to me I took an oath to protect the Constitution.”
PHOTO: Rep. Tom Rice speaks with Jon Karl. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Rep. Tom Rice speaks with Jon Karl. (ABC News)

Trump has vowed vengeance against Rice, endorsing one of his six primary opponents and holding a rally in his district in March.

“Right here, in the 7th district, Tom Rice, a disaster,” Trump said to boos. “He’s respected by no one, he’s laughed at in Washington.”

A mild-mannered accountant and tax attorney who helped craft the 2017 Republican tax law Trump signed into law, Rice says he voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump’s agenda in Congress.

“If I am a ‘disaster,’ and a ‘total fool’ and I voted with him 169 times out of 184, what does that make him?” he said to Karl. “I was following his lead.”

“He's a narcissist, and he’s driven by attention, and he’s driven by revenge,” Rice said of Trump.

He also warned his party against rallying around the former president if Trump seeks the Oval Office again, as Trump has often hinted.

MORE: Trump has few followers as election claims grow more preposterous: The Note

“I think it will hurt us,” Rice said. “We’ll get painted more in the corner of extremism, they'll try to label us as extremist. And he’ll feed that.”

Rice criticized Republicans, including GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, for quickly embracing Trump in the weeks after the Capitol attack.

He declined to say whether McCarthy should be speaker if Republicans win back the House in November.

“I’m not gonna answer that one right now,” he told ABC’s Karl. “We’ll see what happens.”
PHOTO: Rep. Tom Rice speaks with Jon Karl. (ABC News)
PHOTO: Rep. Tom Rice speaks with Jon Karl. (ABC News)

Rice praised Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who also voted to impeach Trump and now serves as the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, calling her a “real Republican.” Like Rice, Cheney drew Trump's wrath for criticizing him and is contending with her own primary challenge.

“She’d be a great speaker,” Rice said. “She is very conservative and I think she’s a fearless leader.”

But before November, Rice needs to defend his seat in Congress on June 14, when he’ll face off against six other candidates — including Trump-endorsed state Rep. Russell Fry — for the Republican nomination.

The crowded field makes it unlikely that any of the candidates will win more than 50% of the vote and avoid a runoff later this month between the top two finishers, Jerry Rovner, the Republican party chairman in Rice’s district, told ABC News.

Rovner, who is officially neutral in the primary but critical of Rice's position on impeachment, said Rice's vote could be a “major problem with a lot of constituents” given Trump’s popularity in the area.

“He could vote 800 times the way they [want him to] vote, but the one thing he voted on that got the press, they were very upset about,” Rovner said of Rice. “And that’s really what it comes down to.”

MORE: Kellyanne Conway says she 'never' lied to Trump about outcome of 2020 election

Rice’s balancing act was on full display at a recent forum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where some voters who had previously supported him walked out when he defended his impeachment vote.

“He’s a traitor, and I just don’t trust him,” Lyne Vail told ABC News. "If you can’t back your party, he’s not going to back you or me.”

Billy Zevgolis, a Myrtle Beach businessman and undecided voter, said he also disagreed with Rice's impeachment vote.

“Right now, Trump is our guy,” he told ABC News. “I don’t like his personality, but his politics are right on the money. His values are aligned with mine.”

Rice hopes he can convince enough voters to overlook his stance on Trump's impeachment even if they don’t agree with it. He could also benefit from the state’s open primaries, which allow Democrats and independents to vote in the GOP race.

Even if he loses, Rice has “absolutely” no regrets, he said.

“You know that, like your obituary, the first sentence is going to be 'Tom Rice, who was a Republican member of Congress, voted to impeach Donald Trump,'” Karl told him.

“So be it," he said. "I'll wear it like a badge. So be it."

GOP Rep. Tom Rice says impeaching Trump was 'the conservative vote' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

06-03-22  01:06pm - 839 days #164
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Democrats ganging up on Republicans.
Republicans fight back by drawing lots of guns.
Republicans say they can do whatever they want with the guns.
Enquiring minds want to know: are Republicans to be trusted with guns?
Should the guns be taken away from the Republicans?
How often does a Republican have to pass a check for suitability to handle dangerous weapons of mass destruction?
Did Donald Trump ever pass a test to see if he was qualified to aim nuclear weapons at Washington, in a bid to eliminate Democratic rivals?
Enquiring minds want to know: is Donald Trump corrupt?
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USA TODAY
'Whatever I want with my guns': GOP lawmaker pulls out handguns during House hearing on gun control
Candy Woodall
Fri, June 3, 2022 at 8:49 AM

WASHINGTON – Florida Congressman Greg Steube pulled out multiple handguns during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday aimed at curbing mass shootings.

The Republican congressman appeared by video conference from his Florida home, arguing that Democrats are trying to strip Americans' constitutional right to bear arms by restricting the ammunition they use.

"Don't let them fool you that they're not attempting to take away your ability to purchase handguns," Steube said. "They are using the magazine ban to do it."

The congressman said his Sig Sauer P365 XL comes with a 15-round magazine and would be banned if the Democrats' "Protecting Our Kids Act" passes. The congressman also said the Glock 19 would be banned.

He also displayed his Sig Sauer P226 and Sig Sauer 320.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., holds up his own handgun as he speaks via videoconference as the House Judiciary Committee holds an emergency meeting to advance a series of Democratic gun control measures, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 2, 2022.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., holds up his own handgun as he speaks via videoconference as the House Judiciary Committee holds an emergency meeting to advance a series of Democratic gun control measures, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 2, 2022.

The display of weapons added to the tension of a legislative hearing packed with partisan and personal broadsides over an issue that has deeply divided Ameicans.

As Steube demonstrated his firearms, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, of Texas, could be heard cutting into his speech.

"I hope the gun is not loaded," she said.

Steube sharply responded: "I'm at my house. I can do whatever I want with my guns."

The congressman also drew criticism from Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.

"This is who Republicans are. Kids are being buried and they're bragging about how many guns they own during our gun safety hearing," he said. "They are not serious. They are a danger to our kids."

Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at cwoodall@usatoday.com or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.

06-03-22  11:46am - 839 days #163
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Former Trump aide charged with contempt.
Donald Trump, the fightenest President of the Untied States we've ever known, has expressed sorrow that his former aide is not paying Congress the respect Congress deserves.
Trump knows that power is important.
That's why he thinks his former aides should help Congress as much as possible.
Will Donald Trump pick up the phone and tell his former aides to co-operate with Congress?
Enquiring minds want to know.
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Navarro indicted on contempt charges for defying 1/6 panel
Associated Press
MICHAEL BALSAMO and ERIC TUCKER
June 3, 2022, 12:15 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House official Peter Navarro was indicted Friday on contempt charges after defying a subpoena from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Navarro is the second former Trump aide to be charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6, 2021, investigation. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was indicted in November. The case against him is pending.

Navarro, 72, was charged with one contempt count for failing to appear for a deposition before the House committee. The second charge is for failing to produce documents the committee requested. He is expected to appear in court in Washington later Friday.

06-03-22  07:12am - 839 days #162
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Russia complains about countries helping Ukraine.
Says Russia is only invading Ukraine to keep the peace.
If any people die, it's not Russia's fault, it's the fault of Ukraine, for not lying down and accepting Russian domination.
Mother Russia loves everyone. Just like Donald Trump.
And if anyone gets in the way, Russia will obliterate them.
With nuclear missiles, if need be.
Russia and Trump are planning a big victory celebration, as soon as they kill a few more thousand Ukraine people.

06-03-22  07:06am - 839 days #161
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Sneaky Japanese golfer disqualified for using white-out on his club.
Officials say you can't use too much white-out on your clubs.
I'm not sure how the white-out would affect the travel of the golf ball.
But if the white-out would allow the golfer to sneak in extra strokes while people aren't watching, I guess that would be a foul.
Only natural wood and elements are allowed in golf.
So they should stop using golf balls and start using string or paper to hit with.
And the clubs should be made of wood. No metal or plastic or whatever.

But President Trump should be allowed to use whatever he wants. He needs all the help he can get. Maybe it would stop him from cheating? Or maybe not.
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Hideki Matsuyama disqualified from Memorial Tournament for illegal marking on club
Yahoo Sports
Chris Cwik
June 2, 2022, 1:14 PM
Scroll back up to restore default view.

Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified from the Memorial Tournament on Thursday due to an illegal marking on one of his clubs.

It was the first disqualification of Matsuyama's career.

The moment was captured on the broadcast.

The issue came down to markings on Matsuyama's 3-wood. The club was featured on the @golfWRX Instagram page hours before Matsuyama got disqualified. PGA Tour senior tournament director Steve Rintoul said they actually saw pictures of the club on social media on Thursday morning, which is what prompted them to take a closer look.

The club face has white markings that appear to form a circle in the middle of the club.

Rintoul explained the the substance on the face of Matsuyama's club was similar to white out. Rintoul said it was an excessive amount of white out, leading the PGA to determine it was a non-conforming club.

PGA Tour officials tried to speak with Matsuyama early in the event, and approached him on his second hole of the day.

Matsuyama said he had the club on him and used it on the first hole. By the fifth hole, after Rintoul went back to "do our due diligence," it was clear that Matsuyama had to be disqualified.

While he said it's OK to have markings on certain parts of clubs, the markings that Matsuyama had were too excessive.

"The equipment rules are very specific," Rintoul said. "It's OK to have very small discrete markings on your face for alignment purposes, like a Sharpie dot here and there that aren't going to influence the ball. But that much substance is clearly above what the equipment rules allow."

Rintoul said he wasn't sure how long Matsuyama may have been applying the substance to his clubs, but he believes this hasn't been an ongoing thing.

"I think we would have learned about it. He's on camera all the time," he said. "He steps on camera all the time. I think this was fresh this week. It's a relatively new 3-wood, it looked like. He was looking for a place to make sure he had the ball centered in the face. They just went about it with like a paper, whiteout brush, and there it was."

Before being disqualified, Matsuyama drew attention from fans after this miraculous bridge shot.

Matsuyama won the Memorial Tournament in 2014. His biggest tournament win came in 2021, when he became the first Asian professional golfer to win the Masters.

The 30-year-old has five top-10 finishes so far this season and two wins, both at the Zozo Championship last fall and at the Sony Open in Hawaii, which marked his eighth career win.

"My worst fear — I was hoping he hasn't used it the first tee, hasn't used it the second tee. We were going to get to him before the third tee, which I'm thinking he might use it on the third tee," Rintoul said. "But the damage was done on the first hole, unfortunately.

"Just unfortunate set of circumstances for Hideki for sure."

Six players are tied for the lead at 5-under after Round 1.

06-02-22  08:38pm - 840 days #160
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Can a cop shoot you if you are protesting, or near a protest?
Does a bear shit in the woods?
Enquiring minds want to know: how often is a cop held responsible for killing or hurting someone?
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George Floyd protester sues Florida police over eye injury
Associated Press
TERRY SPENCER
June 2, 2022, 2:01 PM

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A protester who suffered eye damage when a rubber bullet fired by Fort Lauderdale police struck her in the face during a 2020 protest over George Floyd's murder filed a federal lawsuit this week accusing the officer and the department of violating her civil rights.

LaToya Ratlieff, 36, is seeking unspecified monetary damages in her lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale, Detective Eliezer Ramos, who fired the rubber bullet, and five other officers for the injuries she suffered on May 31, 2020. She was taking part in a Black Lives Matter protest that drew thousands over Floyd's videotaped slaying six days earlier by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for eight minutes.

A bystander’s video shows Ratlieff was struck as she choked on tear gas that had been fired by officers and stumbled into a street. She suffered a broken right eye socket, nerve damage to that eye and a 20-stitch gash to her forehead that left a scar. Her attorneys say she also suffers migraines and mental trauma.

The round that struck Ratlieff was made of collapsible, hollow foam that is typically filled with a chemical irritant. According to its manufacturer, it is about the size of a golf ball, weighs slightly less and has an initial velocity of 200 mph (320 kph). The rounds are supposed to be aimed at the legs and buttocks as they can be lethal if they hit the head or chest.

“Two years ago, I came to Fort Lauderdale to raise my voice against police brutality. Today, I return to do the very same,” Ratlieff said in a statement read by her attorneys at a Thursday news conference outside Fort Lauderdale police headquarters. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday. “I have every reason to believe that if the same circumstances were repeated today, the risk of someone becoming the victims of brutality at the hands of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department are as high as they have ever been.”

A police department investigation in December cleared Ramos of wrongdoing, saying he was aiming at a man who had thrown a tear gas canister back at officers when Ratlieff walked into his line of fire. The department's then-interim chief also issued an apology to Ratlieff. A department spokesman said this week it does not comment on pending lawsuits.

The police investigation put the blame for the violence on some of the protesters, saying they had come to the city looking to start a confrontation with officers. Some bottles and rocks were thrown at officers — but Ratlieff’s attorneys say that only began after an officer pushed a kneeling woman to the ground.

The lawsuit alleges that Fort Lauderdale police did not train its officers on how to use the weapons in crowd-control situations and that state law bans the firing of tear gas or rubber bullets into a crowd without first giving a warning to disperse and then ample time to leave.

Stuart Ratzan, Ratlieff's lead trial attorney, said the protest had been peaceful and lawful for several hours until police fired without warning.

“To open fire on American citizens who are asking you to stop using violence against them — there is no excuse for that," Ratzan said.

06-01-22  12:20pm - 841 days #159
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FBI puts arrests over concerns for the victims.
Says you have to take the long-term view.
Any victim list is small.
Compared to the publicity value of arresting a criminal.
FBI also says that they are pure in heart.
That is why they didn't investigate rumors that Brett Kanaugh molested women.
The thought of a woman being molested sends shudders through the minds of an FBI agent.
And Brett Kanaugh likes beer, so he must be a good old boy.

The leader of the FBI praises China.
Says that they are the best at “lie, cheat and steal their way into global denomination of global sectors.”
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Associated Press
Wray: FBI blocked planned cyberattack on children's hospital
ERIC TUCKER and ALAN SUDERMAN
Wed, June 1, 2022 at 7:07 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI thwarted a planned cyberattack on a children's hospital in Boston that was to have been carried out by hackers sponsored by the Iranian government, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.

Wray told a Boston College cybersecurity conference that his agents learned of the planned digital attack from an unspecified intelligence partner and got Boston Children's Hospital the information it needed last summer to block what would have been “one of the most despicable cyberattacks I've seen.”

“And quick actions by everyone involved, especially at the hospital, protected both the network and the sick kids who depended on it,” Wray said.

The FBI chief recounted that anecdote in a broader speech about cyber threats from Russia, China and Iran, and the need for partnerships between the U.S. government and the private sector.

He said the bureau and Boston Children’s Hospital had worked closely after a hacktivist attacked the hospital’s computer network in 2014. Martin Gottesfeld launched a cyberattack at the hospital to protest the care of a teenager at the center of a high-profile custody battle; Gottesfeld later was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The attack against the hospital and a treatment home cost the facilities tens of thousands of dollars and disrupted operations for days.

“Children’s and our Boston office already knew each other well — before the attack from Iran — and that made a difference,” Wray said.

He did not ascribe a particular motive to the planned attack on the hospital, but he noted that Iran and other countries have been hiring cyber mercenaries to conduct attacks on their behalf. In addition, the health care and public health sector is classified by the U.S. government as one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors, and health care providers such as hospitals are seen as ripe targets for hackers.

When it comes to Russia, he said, the FBI is “racing” to warn potential targets about preparatory actions that hackers are taking toward destructive attacks. In March, for instance, the FBI warned that it was seeing increased interest by hackers in energy companies since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Hackers from China have stolen more corporate and personal data from people in the United States than all other nations combined, as part of a broader geopolitical goal to “lie, cheat and steal their way into global denomination of global sectors,” Wray said.

The speech took place as the FBI continues to combat ransomware attacks from criminal gangs, a continuing concern for U.S. officials despite the absence of crippling intrusions in recent months.

Wray emphasized the need for private companies to work with the FBI to thwart ransomware gangs and nation-state hackers.

“What these partnerships let us do is hit our adversaries at every point — from the victims’ networks, back all the way to the hackers’ own computers,” Wray said.

The FBI and other federal agencies have been working to assure hacking victims that it is in their best interest to report intrusions and cyber crimes. Many companies attacked by ransomware gangs often do not go to the FBI for a variety of reasons.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, issued a report this year critical of the FBI’s response to some ransomware victims. In two cases, the FBI “prioritized its investigative and prosecutorial efforts to disrupt attacker operations over victims’ need to protect data and mitigate damage,” the report said.

One unnamed Fortune 500 company told committee staff that the FBI did not offer any “helpful assistance” when responding to a ransomware attack.

Wray, though, cited the FBI's capacity to get a technically trained agent to any victimized company in an hour — “and we use it a lot.”

___

Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia.

06-01-22  07:28am - 841 days #158
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Support your local police.
But sometimes the local police will not cooperate with other police.
How can this be?
Stand up for your rights, say the police.
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Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting: Sources
ABC News
JOSH MARGOLIN and AARON KATERSKY
May 31, 2022, 6:27 PM

The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state's review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

The Uvalde police chief and a spokesperson for the Uvalde Independent School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.

MORE: 'Full of victims': Video appears to show Texas 911 dispatchers relaying information from children in classroom

According to sources, the decision to stop cooperating occurred soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was "the wrong decision" and contrary to protocol.

Reached by ABC News, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety said, "The Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde CISD Police have been cooperating with investigators. The chief of the Uvalde CISD Police provided an initial interview but has not responded to a request for a follow-up interview with the Texas Rangers that was made two days ago."

Last Tuesday's attack, one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, left 19 children and two adults dead.

Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting: Sources originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

06-01-22  07:19am - 841 days #157
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Russia says if the United States keeps interfering with the Ukraine insurrection, that Russia might be forced to invade the US.
However, there is a second possibility: Putin can call on his best buddy, Donald Trump, to take back the White House and put Sleepy Joe Biden in jail, where Biden really belongs, after he stole the White House away from Dictator-For-Life and Most-Honored-Hero-Of-The-Republic-Of-Trumperland, the most glorious and amazing Donald Trump.
Can the US and Russia come to blows?
Or will Donald Trump come to the rescue?
Enquiring minds want to know.

However, Biden and Trump are having secret meetings: can they bury the hatchet, or will one of them bury the hatchet in the back of his opponent?
Trump is the likely victor in such a contest, because Sleepy Joe Biden seems to have lost the pills that allow him to stay awake during the daytime.
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Russia says U.S. 'adding fuel to the fire' by sending rockets to Ukraine
Reuters
June 1, 2022, 5:38 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday sharply criticized a U.S. decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine, warning of an increased risk of direct confrontation with Washington.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire."

When asked how Russia would respond if Ukraine used U.S.-supplied rockets to strike Russian territory, Peskov said: "Let's not talk about worst-case scenarios".

U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at long-range Russian targets as part of a new U.S. package to help Kyiv defend itself in the three-month-old war that began with Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.

Washington agreed to supply the rockets, which are capable of hitting targets as far away as 80 km (50 miles), after Ukraine gave "assurances" they will not use the missiles to strike inside Russia itself, senior U.S. officials said.

Peskov said Moscow did not trust such assurances. He said it was assessing the risk of rockets being fired into Russian territory and was taking appropriate measures, but that it viewed Washington's step "extremely negatively."

He said such supplies would not encourage Ukraine's leadership to resume stalled peace talks.

Ukrainian officials have been asking allies for longer-range missile systems that can fire a barrage of rockets hundreds of miles away, in the hopes of turning the tide of the war.

U.S. President Joe Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times: "We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so that it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table."

Earlier, state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying, when asked about the prospect of a direct confrontation between the United States and Russia: "Any arms shipments that continue, that are on the rise, increase the risks of such a development."

05-31-22  03:30pm - 842 days #156
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Donald Trump is threatening the Pulitzer committee with legal action if they don't take back the awards given to the New York Times and the Washington Post for reports on an investigation into Trump's ties to Russia.

The reports were false, Trump states, and they have hurt his reputation.
Trump is a man of truth and honor and warmth and genuine regard for his fellow humans.
Anyone who says otherwise, who implies otherwise, is a low-down, dirty, lying yellow coward.
And they deserve to the smashed and put into jail.

Only Trump has the right to accuse people of crimes, without any evidence, based on the idea that politicians have the right of free speech.
That right is reserved for special people, such as Donald Trump.
No one else.
Therefore, the Pulitzer committee is guilty of treason, because they gave awards to two news organizations that did not offer praise to Donald Trump.

Hail Donald Trump, the greatest, most honestest President of the Untied States of Trumperland we've ever known.
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Trump threatens Pulitzer committee with legal action if they don't rescind award for Russia probe coverage
Ronn Blitzer
Tue, May 31, 2022 at 11:40 AM

Former President Donald Trump is calling on the Pulitzer Prize Board to revoke prizes awarded to the New York Times and Washington Post in 2018 for their coverage of the Russia investigation, threatening legal action if they do not comply.

In a letter to Pulitzer administrator Marjorie Miller, Trump noted that he twice previously made the request, stating that the reporting on the years-long probe was based on false information.

"There is no dispute that the Pulitzer Board's award to those media outlets was based on false and fabricated information that they published," the former president said. "The continuing publication and recognition of the prizes on the Board's website is a distortion of fact and a personal defamation that will result in the filing of litigation if the Board cannot be persuaded to do the right thing on its own."

Fox News reached out to the Pulitzer Board for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

HILLARY CLINTON APPROVED DISSEMINATION OF TRUMP-RUSSIAN BANK ALLEGATIONS TO MEDIA, CAMPAIGN MANAGER TESTIFIES

The letter, dated May 27, references "additional recent evidence" and calls on the board "to pay close attention to the developments in the ongoing criminal trial of Michael Sussman [sic], the former attorney for the 2016 Clinton Campaign."

Sussmann was accused of lying to the FBI and hiding that he was representing the Clinton campaign when he had a meeting to provide information about Trump. Sussmann was acquitted by a jury on Tuesday.

Trump pointed to the revelation at Sussmann's trial that Clinton approved the dissemination of materials to the media alleging a secret communications channel between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, despite campaign officials not being "totally confident" in the legitimacy of the data.

MICHAEL SUSSMANN FOUND NOT GUILTY OF CHARGE BROUGHT BY SPECIAL PROSECUTOR JOHN DURHAM

The former president claimed that the Times and Post quickly would have learned that the Clinton campaign's "shameful smears" were false, "had they done even a modicum of journalistic investigation" into the matter.

Trump also asked the Board to look at Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report detailing problems with the FBI's actions in the early stages of the Russia probe before it was turned over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"Together with the publications that have obsessively promulgated disgustingly false attacks against me, you have done all you can to destroy my reputation," Trump said, asking, "how do I get my reputation back?"

Fox News' Brooke Singman, Jake Gibson, and David Spunt contributed to this report.

05-31-22  03:14pm - 842 days #155
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Donald Trump Jr. says that guns aren't to blame for the Uvalde school massacre.
The gunman could have killed all those people with a bat.
Or a machete.
Or a bomb.
Or with his bare hands.
All the gunman needed was a small army that would have held down the victims, while the gunman decided how to kill each child, each teacher.
And maybe some of the kids or teachers needed to die.
They might have done something to set the gunman off.
Donald Trump Jr. will run for President of the Untied States of Trumperland, after his father, Dictator for Life, has gone up to heaven.
But first we will have Ivanka Trump, the gorgeous woman Donald Trump senior would date, if she wasn't his daughter. She is the one to become President of the Untied States of Trumperland.
She probably has more sense than Donald Trump Jr.
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Donald Trump Jr. says guns aren't to blame for the Uvalde massacre as the gunman could also have killed 19 kids with a bat

Sophia Ankel
Tue, May 31, 2022 at 6:59 AM·2 min read

Donald Trump Jr. commented on the Uvalde school shooting in a Facebook video on Saturday.

In the video, he mocked people who would argue that guns are to blame for the mass shooting.

He suggested that the shooter could have also killed with other weapons.

Donald Trump Jr. argued on Saturday that guns aren't to blame for the massacre at a school in Uvalde, Texas, suggesting that the shooter could have killed children with a bat or a machete.

In a video posted on Facebook, Trump Jr. sought to counter those proposing tighter gun laws in the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary School last week that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

"They'll blame it on the guns. They'll blame it on everything, because no one can possibly take responsibility for their actions," he said in the video.

He continued by making fun of people who would blame the shooting on the gun but "not the sociopath wielding it."

"If it wasn't for the gun, this kid would be a well-adjusted, reasonable individual — he'd be a wonderful human being, right?" he said. "He wouldn't have done the exact same thing with a bat, or a bomb, or some sort of improvised device, or a machete?"

Trump Jr. said better targets for blame were an unstable family, mental-health issues, and "crazy teachers."

"No one can admit somebody is actually a piece of garbage and screwed up," he said. "We can't have that — that would be mean!"

Authorities have said the 18-year-old shooter, who was killed at the school by US Border Patrol agents, bought a military-style rifle a week before the massacre.

A CNN report described authorities as saying that the shooter had no history of mental illness, adding that his family and friends described him as a loner.

Trump Jr. is among several Republicans who have defended gun ownership in the aftermath of the shooting. His father, former President Donald Trump, said in a speech at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting that leaders should make it "far easier to confine the violent and mentally deranged into mental institutions."

05-31-22  02:48pm - 842 days Original Post - #1
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I didn't buy anything in Amazon Prime Day 2021.
Couldn't find anything I wanted.

Hoping this coming Prime Day will be better.
Lots of specials are offered, mainly on Amazon-brand products, but also other items as well.

We just had Memorial Day sales.

No date announced yet for Amazon Prime Day.
Usually, it lasts 2 days.

05-31-22  06:31am - 842 days #154
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The sickos are coming out of the woodwork.
Another Florida youth, an 18-year-old, was arrested for posting a message that indicated he wanted to shoot lots of people in a school.
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Deputies arrest Florida man who threatened a school shooting
Associated Press
May 30, 2022, 9:27 AM
Scroll back up to restore default view.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Detectives have arrested an 18-year-old Florida man after receiving a tip that he threatened a mass shooting at a school in a social media post.

Corey Anderson's post showed him with a handgun, a rifle and a tactical-style vest along with a caption that said, “Hey Siri, directions to the nearest school," Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news release.

Anderson was arrested at his home near Tampa on Sunday, and charged with a written or electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.

“This type of threat is unacceptable. This man intentionally instilled fear into our community as a sick joke, but be warned, this is no laughing matter,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement.

The sheriff said his agency will “do everything within our power" to track down anyone who makes school threats.

“Protecting our students is our greatest priority," Chronister said. We take school threats very seriously, if you see something suspicious, please contact us immediately.”

The arrest came days after an 18-year-old entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and fatally shot 19 children and two teachers. The gunman was eventually killed by law enforcement officers some 80 minutes after he entered the classroom in the predominantly Latino community that sits among vegetable fields halfway between San Antonio and the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the Florida case, deputies discovered that the weapons in the photo were airsoft guns, the news release said.

Anderson was booked into jail and later released on bond, jail records show.

Records did not include the name of an attorney who could speak on Anderson's behalf.

05-31-22  06:21am - 842 days #153
LKLK (0)
Active User

Posts: 1,583
Registered: Jun 26, '19
Location: CA
Trump praises fifth grade student for bravery.
Says this is the kind of boy who will grow up to help make America great again.
The boy was arrested and charged with threatening a mass shooting.
The boy is 10 years old. But he heard about the recent school shooting in Texas, and decided he wanted to join the fun.
So he sent a text message indicating he wanted to kill lots of people.
Trump praised the boy for an over-enthusiastic response.
Trump, man of action, who previously said that if he was at a school shooting, he would rush in to save the children, even if Trump was unarmed. Because Trump is a hero. And the only reason Trump did not go to Vietnam, where the US was fighting a war, was because Trump had responsibilities to his family. And family comes first.
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Florida fifth grader arrested, charged with threatening a mass shooting, police say
NBC Universal
Chantal Da Silva
May 30, 2022, 7:03 AM

A fifth grade student in Florida was arrested over the weekend and charged with sending a text message threatening to carry out a mass shooting, authorities said.

In a statement Saturday, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said it had learned earlier that day of a "threatening text message" sent by a student at an elementary school.

It said its local school threat enforcement team was immediately notified and started investigating. The 10-year-old boy was interviewed and charged later with "making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting," the sheriff's office said.

In video shared by authorities, the boy can be seen being led into a police vehicle.

“This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement, noting that the threat came just days after the deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School left 19 students and two teachers dead.

“Right now is not the time to act like a little delinquent. It’s not funny,” he said. “This child made a fake threat, and now he’s experiencing real consequences.”

Marceno said his team “didn’t hesitate one second...NOT ONE SECOND,” to investigate the incident.

The remark came as authorities in Uvalde face mounting criticism over their response to the May 24 school shooting after it came to light that they waited roughly an hour for backup instead of immediately moving in on the gunman.

05-31-22  12:54am - 842 days #152
LKLK (0)
Active User

Posts: 1,583
Registered: Jun 26, '19
Location: CA
Trump rallies the troops at NRA convention.
Says he will be coming after Sleepy Joe Biden and drag his ass out of the White House.
Says the Untied States of Trumperland remains firmly behind Trump, and will, on Trump's death, go to his beloved children, especially Ivanka Trump, the one he would be dating if he wasn't her father.
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Isaac Hayes' Family Furious Trump Used Song For His Jig At Controversial NRA Speech
HuffPost
Mary Papenfuss
May 29, 2022, 5:34 PM
Unspecified - 1974: Isaac Hayes performing on the ABC tv series 'Wide World of Entertainment' episode 'Salute to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr'. (Photo by Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images) (Walt Disney Television Photo Archives via Getty Images)

The family of the late legendary musician Isaac Hayes has posted an angry tweet lashing former President Donald Trump’s use of one of Hayes’s songs at his controversial speech Friday at the National Rifle Association convention.

“The estate and family of Isaac Hayes DID NOT approve and would NEVER approve the use of ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ ... by Donald Trump at this weekend’s NRA convention,” said the tweet.

The tweet added: “Our condolences go out to the victims and families of Uvalde and mass shooting victims everywhere.”

In a bold display of disrespect, Trump bashed gun control and hailed all firearms in his Friday speech, including the kind of military-style assault weapons that killed 19 children and two teachers in a mass shooting in Uvalde last week.

Trump then mangled the pronunciation of victims’ names, which he read interspersed with cheesy funeral toll sounds.

Trump wrapped up his speech smiling, with his clenched fists and wooden dance steps to the song “Hold On, I’m Coming,” written by Hayes and David Porter, and recorded in 1966 by rhythm-and-blues duo Sam and Dave.

The lyrics — including “Just hold on, I’m coming” — sounded suspiciously like a preening campaign song, shockingly inappropriate as Uvalde prepares to bury the slain children.

A long list of musicians — from the Rolling Stones to Black Sabbath, Adele, R.E.M., Rihanna and Aerosmith, and the estates of Tom Petty and Prince — have contacted Trump’s campaign organization to demand he stop appropriating their songs without permission to promote himself. Neither the artists nor songs have anything remotely to do with his positions, they’ve charged.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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