All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Times Square Subway Gunman's Father Killed in Ohio Shooting

Andrew Teague—the father of an 18-year-old man arrested on Friday for carrying a semi-automatic rifle in New York City's Time Square subway station—was killed in a March shootout with Ohio police.

Police arrested Andrew Teague's son, Saadiq Teague, on Friday around 12:30 p.m. after Teague entered the subway station and placed his AK-47 firearm on the ground. Officers with the New York Police Department questioned him in the station and arrested him. They found a loaded magazine on the young adult as well.

He told police that he had a license for the weapon and was unaware that New York forbids the open carrying of firearms, WCBS reported. Police have said there's no indication that he had planned an attack. He neither made any threats nor fired any shots.

A friend confirmed that the 18-year-old had traveled to New York City from Ohio. Police discovered marijuana, a bong and gas mask in Saadiq Teague's possession. They believe he intended to hook the mask to the bong for smoking marijuana. Saadiq Teague has since been charged with four counts of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal use of drug paraphernalia.

Video on Saadiq Teague's Instagram page showed him walking around New York City with the top of his gun sticking out of his backpack, according to WNBC. The video also showed him and his friend splashing water on a man sleeping in the subway and slapping another person who snoozed while holding onto a subway car's overhead strap.

Saadiq Teague's 43-year-old father, Andrew Teague, was killed in early March during a highway shootout with police in Ohio.

[Tami]

Minnesota man accused of dragging, assaulting police officer in mask dispute

A 61-year-old Minnesota man is in police custody after dragging a police officer with his car and assaulting him with a hammer following a report of an assault that began as a mask dispute, police say.

Police were called to a Menards store on Wednesday after the suspect, identified as Luke Alvin Oeltjenbruns, allegedly attacked an employee with lumber amid a mask dispute, the Hutchinson Police Department said in a statement. When police arrived, they found Oeltjenbruns in a nearby Walmart parking lot, police said.

As the officer, Steven Sickmann, approached, Oeltjenbruns tried to evade him in a slow-speed car chase that ended near a local mall, police said. When Sickmann exited his vehicle to confront Oeltjenbruns, he became trapped in the driver's-side window of Oeltjenbruns' car.

Oeltjenbruns then took off, dragging Sickmann down the road at a high speed, according to police. The officer was also struck with a hammer in the struggle.

Police eventually apprehended Oeltjenbruns, who was arrested at the scene, police said. Sickmann was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for his injuries.

The incident happened roughly 60 miles west of where George Floyd and Daunte Wright, both Black men, were killed at the hands of police officers. Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing the families of Floyd and Wright, tweeted Thursday: "Yesterday a white man in Minnesota assaults a retail worker, rams into a police car, hits a cop in the head with a HAMMER, then drives off with the cop STILL ATTACHED to his vehicle. Was he shot? NO. Was he tased? NO. What a stark contrast to #DaunteWright..."

The McLeod County Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation of the incident.

[godisawesome]

I'm not even going to try and predict what the verdict might end up being, I only hope there will be some modicum of peace after it's announced. A few hours ago, I chatted with a neighbor about the trial and he said that Chauvin should hope to be convicted and end up in prison because he'd have a bullseye on his back if he's set free. I reminded him that ex-cops usually don't last long behind bars with the scum they help put there, my neighbor just shrugged and said that wasn't his problem. Not that I particularly care, but regardless of if Chauvin is jailed or released, he won't have an easy moment for the rest of his life.

I feel like the prosecution did too good of a job to not get Chauvin pinned for at least much of the responsibility for Floyd’s death; they went above and beyond to get it made clear his knee was on Floyd’s neck, not his shoulder, for the 8+ minutes, that he wasn’t acting in accordance with training or policy, that he had a legal responsibility to react appropriately once Floyd began showing serious signs of needing medical aid, and that Floyd’s death is tied in some way to the knee on his neck. They brought in too many witnesses who had the authority over Chauvin to make that call, including his own superiors.

The catch, truthfully, is how responsible Chauvin is found.

If the jury decides that 1) Chauvin’s actions clearly crossed the line into assault and 2) directly caused Floyd’s death, than Chauvin is guilty of second-degree unintentional murder. (Presumed sentence: 10-15 years.)

If the Jury decides that 1) Chauvin acted in a manner imminently dangerous to others, and 2) did so out of a “depraved mind”, than Chauvin would be guilty of third degree murder. This is a weird one because of the “depraved mind” aspect, but it is also the standard by which Minnesota’s only convicted on-duty cop killing was found guilty. (Presumed sentence: 10-15 years.)

If the Jury decides that 1) Chauvin’s actions were “culpable negligent” and 2) put Floyd at risk fo dying, than he’s guilty of second degree manslaughter. (Presumed sentence: 3-4 years.)

It comes down to multiple factors - how much the jury believes the prosecution’s witnesses that Floyd’s death is directly tied to Chauvin’s knee on his throat, and whether Chauvin’s actions were simply negligent or depraved (which could very well come down to how the jury perceives him kneeling on the neck for 8+ minutes comes off as.)

That Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd’s neck does not appear to have been disputed during the actual trial at all.

[CaptainEurope]

I keep hearing the word de-escalation but I'm not sure what it means i.e. what would de-escalation training even entail?

I actually got a certification as deescalation trainer with youths, so I'll try to answer this.

Deescalation works on several level. In a one-on-one setting, it starts with communication. Don't tell people who are upset to calm down. In the history of anger, nobody has ever calmed down over being told to do so. You signal that you take their concern seriously, you listen to their problem. You avoid "you messages" (like "you're out of coutrol") in favor of me-messages ("from the outside, it looks like you are very angry and I am concerned for the safety of you and the people around you.") You make constructive suggestions, you try to find a common goal.

In larger settings, there are different approaches. For example, not "cornering" groups of protesters. Not using pepper spray unless it is actually and acutely needed to protect yourself or others. Same basically for all use of force. Start a conversation, not a riot.

One example how not to do it was Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring. He literally went on TV and told protesters that they were acting like children, that they need to go home and go to bed. No word towards their concerns, not taking them seriously at all. Of course things escalated from there.

[CaptainEurope]

Hey WBE- have you ever profiled an entire state?


Florida's new ban on transgender students in sports would allow schools to subject minors to genital inspections

Ron DeathSantis and the Genital Inspections is the name of my new punk rock band.

[Tendrin]

That Florida law is pretty enraging.

[worstblogever]

Ron DeathSantis and the Genital Inspections is the name of my new punk rock band.

That Florida law is pretty enraging.

You would think the party linked to a sex trafficking ring that involves minors in Florida right now would not be passing laws that require a child genital inspection.

In a sane world. But Republiqans don't want to live in a sane world.

[Tendrin]

You would think the party linked to a sex trafficking ring that involves minors in Florida right now would not be passing laws that require a child genital inspection.

In a sane world. But Republiqans don't want to live in a sane world.

It's the natural end point of viewpoints pushed by people right in this thread who assured me that trans-girls really need to be kept out of girl's sports because 'fallon fox'.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Hey WBE- have you ever profiled an entire state?


Florida's new ban on transgender students in sports would allow schools to subject minors to genital inspections

It's absolutely mindblowing that Qpublicans lie awake nights dreaming up revolting **** like this.

[mogwen]

It's absolutely mindblowing that Qpublicans lie awake nights dreaming up revolting **** like this.

Will it apply to their daughters? Or will they try to have them exempted?

[worstblogever]

Qanon twits fantasize about Democrats diddlin' kids in pizza dungeons, meanwhile, the party they support are literally legislating that the genitals of children need inspecting.

That's... that's how bad the disconnect is.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015,
http://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/p...8/walter-jones
2016,
http://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/p...es-2016-update
2017,
https://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/...es-2017-update
2018,
https://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/...es-2018-update
as well as 2019,
https://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/...es-2019-update
"Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the sitting U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, Walter Jones, whose biggest claim to fame is that during the build up to the Iraq War, when France refused to join the United States in invading, he responded by submitting a resolution to have French Fries in the Capitol cafeteria renamed "Freedom Fries". He was also a big supporter of Ilario Pantano, a U.S. Soldier from Iraq who was placed on military trial for killing two Iraqi citizens and displaying their corpses with a sign saying, "No better friend, no worse enemy." Of course, Jones seems rather fine with anti-Muslim measures himself, considering he's publicly complained about community colleges in his district spending money on copies of textbooks on Islam or Muslim culture, called for defunding the Obama administration to stop the resettlement of Muslim refugees, and has tried to get classified information about 9/11 declassified, claiming that Saudi Arabia would be secretly revealed to have funded the attacks. He has also discussed impeaching President Obama for his executive orders on immigration, and going on the conservative news network Newsmax to be interviewed by former Congressman J.D. Hayworth to say he felt Republicans have a “Constitutional duty to impeach President Obama”. As late as June of 2015, Rep. Jones was repeating lies about how the Affordable Care Act would create “death panels”, over a half-decade after it was named Politifact’s “Lie of the Year”. Walter Jones also is a repeated guest of Alex Jones' InfoWars, agreeing with the host on one episode that "abortion is a curse upon America", and that if it was stopped, the curse would be lifted. Walter Jones has been sabotaging the Republican Party’s biggest establishment names for the past few years. We discussed in our original profile of Jones that he recanted his belief that the War on Iraq was justified (that’s right, even the Freedom Fries guy has hindsight). By the end of the Bush administration, Jones was more than willing to throw Dubya under the bus, and lay blame with him for the deaths of thousands of American troops in a conflict we stared because of selectively presented evidence against the Hussein regime. And that guilt and resentment over his Iraq War vote carried over to the rest of the Bush family, it seems, because while Jeb Bush was trying his damnedest to make some headway in the 2016 Presidential Primary, Walter Jones was right there to chuck Jeb under the bus over it, as well, going on Alex Jones’ InfoWars (again) in August 2015 to do so, saying, “If my brother had sent 4,000 Americans to die in an unnecessary war, I don’t believe I’d be making those statements. We never had to go into Iraq. It was manufactured intelligence. We had no business going into Iraq, taking out Saddam is part of the problem that we’ve got with the Middle East right now.” And he still wasn’t done. Through most of the summer and early fall of 2015, Walter Jones was working with the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most obstinate, pigheaded, and deranged Republicans in all of Congress, to push for the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, who they no longer trusted because they felt he compromised with Democrats too much. (Think about that for a second… John Boehner compromised too much in his mind.) Rep. Kevin McCarthy was fast-tracked to be John Boehner’s replacement as House Speaker, and while McCarthy certainly did botch his step into the media spotlight for the job, it certainly didn’t help that Walter Jones sent out a letter to Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers than implied Rep. McCarthy was having an affair with another woman, who many speculated was fellow Congresswoman Renee Ellmers. Walter Jones survived three consecutive attempts by the national Republican Party to bounce him from office in a primary election, winning another term in 2018. He would not, however, survive his own health, though, as only a month after he announced he would retire from office in 2020, Jones suddenly passed away at the age of 76, leaving behind one of the most bizarre political legacies of any modern Republican. Jones shuffled of his mortal coil in 2019.



On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, had its first profile of Werner Horn, who first was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives since 2014, when he unseated incumbent Democrat Scott Burns by all of 12 votes. In the 2018 mid-terms, Horn again held off Burns by a staggering 20 votes. We’ve profilied Horn not so much for his voting record, where he’s voted against minimum wage increases, voted against an official procedure to investigate sexual harassment within the state legislature, against an attempt to repeal the death penalty, voted against a ban on gay conversion therapy, and voted against a measure to prevent discrimination in public schools.

No we’re going to write a profile on Werner Horn because in July of 2019, he had a conversation with a former GOP state legislator on Facebook where he posited his opinion that, “owning slaves doesn’t make you racist.” It wasn’t a misunderstanding, as he was contacted by the Huffington Post and gave an interview where, at length, he defended his goddamned ignorant stance:

”It’s never OK to own another person. But to label the institution as racist is a false narrative. Slave masters didn’t consider race at the auction block but instead were making an economic decision and purchasing who was available. When you look back at auction inventory lists, Horn said, there aren’t white names” or Native American or Hispanic names

I should’ve said European instead of white, but I’m a little less PC than normal people.
Women and children cost less than male slaves, so does that mean they were being discriminated against? Unless you’re going to try to tell me those plantation owners were so in the dark ages that they delighted in being also sexist and ageist — practicing age discrimination and sex discrimination when they bought slaves — I don’t see how you can say they’re being racist because they bought black slaves

My comment specifically was aimed at a period of time when that was how you survived, that’s how you fed your family. It wasn’t ‘I want to own a black person today.’ It was, ’I need to feed my family; I need five guys who can work stupidly long hours in the sun without killing themselves.’”

If you were playing white nationalist bingo, you may have just won based on that interview alone.

Realizing that he had little chance of winning re-election after even his own Republican Governor called him out for being racist as heck, Werner Horn opted to call it a career as a legislator and not run for re-election in 2020.

We would like to wish him our finest “Good Riddance” salute at this time.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Qanon twits fantasize about Democrats diddlin' kids in pizza dungeons, meanwhile, the party they support are literally legislating that the genitals of children need inspecting.

That's... that's how bad the disconnect is.

I'm sure parents of trans children are all onboard with complete strangers looking the genitals of their kids....NOT!!

[CSTowle]

Man, that dog whistle is screeching long and hard.

I see this as a good thing. Not in and of itself, but because it's the next step in the realization that we're transitioning from a white/Christian nation that paid lip service to equality and opportunity for all but whose laws, culture, education, etc. were designed by and for the majority white Christian population to one that is truly diverse and where white Christian folk are just one of many groups vying for a seat at the table (rather than owning the table, chairs, and anything on it but sometimes allowing some others to sit, if they played by their rules). In the past those fighting for minority representation were called "special interest groups". This shows that some on the right are realizing they're going to be just another special interest group here in a few decades and they'd best start preparing for that day.

[Tami]

I see this as a good thing. Not in and of itself, but because it's the next step in the realization that we're transitioning from a white/Christian nation that paid lip service to equality and opportunity for all but whose laws, culture, education, etc. were designed by and for the majority white Christian population to one that is truly diverse and where white Christian folk are just one of many groups vying for a seat at the table (rather than owning the table, chairs, and anything on it but sometimes allowing some others to sit, if they played by their rules). In the past those fighting for minority representation were called "special interest groups". This shows that some on the right are realizing they're going to be just another special interest group here in a few decades and they'd best start preparing for that day.

The only thing good about it is that it gathers all the lunatics in one place so that we can deal with them all at once.