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

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted that he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.

Among those, “other men” was Matt Gaetz himself I’m sure.

Did Greenberg name Gaetz?

[Amadeus Arkham]

Did Greenberg name Gaetz?

He named him in the confession letter:

Although Gaetz’s name does not appear in the plea agreement that Greenberg signed with federal prosecutors, Greenberg did name him in a confession letter. In that handwritten note, which Florida prosecutors also obtained, Greenberg wrote that both he and Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old—though Greenberg claimed the two men did not know she was underage at the time.

Gaetz Wingman Pleads Guilty in Latest Threat to Congressman

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He named him in the confession letter:

Gaetz Wingman Pleads Guilty in Latest Threat to Congressman

What I know about legal matters wouldn't fill a shot glass, but would such a letter be considered admissible as evidence in a criminal trial, should this business go that far?

[CSTowle]

Not a fan of the Twitter, but came across this after stopping by Wonkette (thanks to Mets I think? for reminding me of their existence) and thought this tweet showing a side-by-side video of a GA rep's testimony on how January 6th was not an insurrection and was hardly distinguishable from normal tourist activity with footage from the day of was amusing, and only 23 seconds long. Sorry if I post incorrectly:

https://twitter.com/jiveDurkey/statu...ring-yesterday

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day published profiles about Mike Ritze, who we highlighted for his sponsorship of Oklahoma’s HB 1330 law, which allowed the presentation of religious monuments on state grounds. Now, while being enough of a theocrat to push for a law similar to ones that the Supreme Court has already overturned is often enough to earn a profile here, Ritze gets special consideration for purchasing a Ten Commandments monument to put up at the state capitol that had multiple spelling errors. The monument stood for a few months until a mentally ill man crashed into it, at the cost of several thousand dollars to Ritze, personally, to build yet another one. But the monument issue gets even more hilarious… Ritze’s wording in writing HB 1330 was vague enough that it left a loophole for ANY religion to put up a monument on state grounds, so a Satanic Temple decided to troll Oklahoma’s GOP Fundamentalists by preparing a statue of Baphomet tempting children to stand on government property, as well. In the end, the Oklahoma Supreme Court made him take down his third attempt at a Ten Commandments ruling after a legal challenge, at a cost of another five thousand dollars to Ritze. Rather than quit while he was ahead, I started lying and claiming all historical landmarks with any religious significance might be taken down (that’s false), and began trying to find ways to impeach members of the Oklahoma Supreme Court for recognizing that there should be a whole separation of church and state. Anyway, outside of this very specific comedy of errors that Ritze is responsible for, we also have one heck of a tacky voting record to single him out on, where he has been a proponent of Birther legislation, preventing the threat of the Agenda 21 Conspiracy theory, bans on Sharia Law, trying to nullify the Affordable Care Act, Trap Laws to attempt to shut down all the state’s abortion clinics, as well as stricter Voter ID laws to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud at the cost of disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters. Mike Ritze’s newest obsession, as of March 2017, is the threat of “Blue Zones”. He warned citizens in an opinion editorial in the local papers that the group Blue Zones, LLC, was trying to restrict the lifestyle choices of Oklahomans, and to “stay vigilant”. Anyone who actually goes to the “Blue Zones” website, however, will only learn that the group tries to promote the benefits of spending quality time with family and friends, exercising, getting enough sleep, eating a more plant-based diet (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, legumes), or avoiding smoking. So whatever paranoid fears Ritze might have, the worst that might come of it is “Blue Zones, LLC” might convince a state legislature to invest money into healthier eating via school lunches or community orchards or marketplaces for selling organic vegetables, or maybe a ban on smoking in some public places. Clearly, global domination territory… STAY VIGILANT! In May of 2017 Mike Ritze came up with an interesting budget plan to save money... harass 82,000 kids who speak Spanish and hand them over to ICE for interrogation! First off, YES, we have to educate non-citizens when they're children, if you ever paid attention to federal law, you muskrat-toupeed twit. But apparently Ritze still thinks there's "savings" into profiling people and just deporting them for not speaking English, rather than, y'know, provide them with an education. One where they might actually be taught English, in theory. Since we last caught up with Ritze, he has left his mark on two of the bigger pieces of legislation in Oklahoma. You may have heard nationally about how Oklahoma teachers went on strike due to low salaries, and even worse funding towards the state’s education budget. Well, while most of the Republicans caved and voted to increase funding to that education budget, Mike Ritze doesn’t care if teachers are underpaid, and if kids are being taught with textbooks that are decades old and crumbling apart. He also co-sponsored a particularly insane piece of legislation to expand the state’s “Stand Your Ground” laws so that people could more easily shoot and kill another person, this time if they suspect they’re somehow a threat to another member of their church. Mike Ritze, and his hairpiece were up for re-election in 2018. He was defeated in the GOP Primary that year, being bounced from office after only getting 42% of the vote.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Melissa Ackison, 2020 candidate for District 26 of the Ohio State Senate and a 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate who finished third in the GOP Primary that year. Ackison was originally campaigning on trying to be the “true conservative” primary matchups by posing with the largest guns she could get her hands on, and threatening to sue any Republican who called her out on being a less than ideal candidate for office. She’s “out there” enough that in February of 2020, the Trump campaign actually contacted her to demand she stop promoting her own campaign for office by posting photos of a White House visit she took to meet Donald Trump as if he endorsed her. She responded publicly, on Twitter, by telling the Trump campaign, “Piss off, punk.” Now, let’s pause for a moment. How crazy does someone have to be to get asked to take down something that looks like a Trump endorsement? There’s white nationalists and Qanon conspiracy theorists running for office across the country doing the same thing, and there’s zero pushback from the Trump campaign. Is she that bad? Well, as the Covid-19 outbreak began, and several governors around the country issued “stay at home” orders to keep the populace from getting infected, well, there were obviously some loons on the far right who threw temper tantrums about the fact that they couldn’t get a haircut or dine in at their local Fuddrucker’s. Melissa Ackison surveyed the situation and thought it was the opportunity to exploit that she was waiting for, at first just calling for Gov. Mike DeWine’s impeachment, but within a month, Ackison became a bit of a viral sensation (and not in a good way), when she was photographed with a small group of lockdown protestors who turned up at DeWine’s office to bang on the doors impotently, ending up doing little more than looking like they were auditioning for another Walking Dead spinoff. She received only 35% of the vote in the GOP Primary in the face to get into the Ohio State Senate against Bill Reineke. She concluded her Election Night concession speech by making a gay joke at Reineke’s expense, insulting the Chairman of the Ohio GOP, and telling her “Republican haters”, and we quote, “kiss my ass”. As she keeps getting more deranged and seems less likely to win office all the time, we will set aside her profile at this time to take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 986-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[Malvolio]

Sounds like Daffy Devin skipped his meds before going on Faux News. Qpublicans are growing crazier with each passing day. The mere thought of those looney tunes regaining power in 2022 or 2024 is nothing short of frightening.

Maybe we'll get lucky and redistricting will strip Nunes of his seat in 2022?

[worstblogever]

Joanne Wright

Welcome to what is the 986th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Joanne Wright, a 2020 GOP candidate for California’s 34th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, looking to unseat incumbent Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez. She would be the longest of long-shot candidates, given the mere +34 Democratic lean that the district has. A Republican would have to be nuts to think they could win in this distr-

Oh, she’s nuts. To the extent that for a time, she had her Twitter background set to an image of Donald Trump in front of a curtain being drawn back to reveal a giant “Q” symbol, because she’s another Qanon twit who ran for Congress as a Republican in 2020. And that’s not the only conspiracy theory she loves, spreading lies about how Covid-19 was actually unleashed by a bioweapons lab in China that was funded by Bill Gates or furthering the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.

Joanne Wright finished fourth out of five candidates, getting only 7.7% of the vote in spite of being the only Republican on the ballot. We’re not sure if she becomes one of the “perennial candidates” that embarrass themselves year in and year out, or if this was a one-off, but we hope it’s the latter.

[worstblogever]

Maybe we'll get lucky and redistricting will strip Nunes of his seat in 2022?

I would crack up if it happened to him... or Darrell Issa, after Issa carpet-bagged down to take Duncan Hunter's old seat.

[Malvolio]

It amazes me that no matter how many times we remind these kooks that most of us already carry around devices that "they" can use to track us, that we carry around these devices voluntarily, everywhere we go, they still believe that Bill Gates is trying to inject microchips in all of us via the vaccines.

[BeastieRunner]

What I know about legal matters wouldn't fill a shot glass, but would such a letter be considered admissible as evidence in a criminal trial, should this business go that far?

Prosecution to Greenberg: We're charging you only on 6 of the of 33 counts against you in exchange for your complete and honest co-operation. But if we catch you lying, we're charging you with the rest of the 27 counts. Excellent strategy by the prosecution. Way to make sure he gives up the dirt on Gaetz. Kind of shocked, however, that the yet-to-be charged accounts are largely the ones involving minors. Also, there is more than one instance of Greenbery taking payment for others to have sex with minors and the 17 year-old is the oldest of that lot ... very gross.

If you want to read up on how this will affect Gaetz ... it is long and complicated but Legal Eagle has a short 25 minute video that will help.



It should be noted that Gaetz is not named at this time or in the letter explicitly HOWEVER ...

“Joel Greenberg has now confessed to falsely accusing an innocent man of having sex with a minor,” said Harlan Hill, a Gaetz spokesperson.

Which is now VERY problematic for Gaetz as that can be taken as admission and/or failure to cooperate which means AT BEST ... he can plead down chargers. He is already labled himself as uncooperative which means no leanancy now.

Gaetz just outed himself as one under investigation and he has no ability to fight it going that route. If he really was innocent, he should keep his mouth shut and cooperate to clear his name. THEN get loud about it.

[Iron Maiden]

This was happening as Greenberg was in the courtroom

As Joel Greenberg stood inside a federal courtroom pleading guilty as part of a cooperation deal with prosecutors, a plane flying outside towed a banner with an ominous message to a prominent ally of the former Seminole County tax collector: “Tick tock Matt Gaetz.”

Greenberg, who resigned from the tax collector post in disgrace after his arrest in June, on Monday pleaded guilty to six felonies, including sex trafficking of a child.

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[WestPhillyPunisher]

Prosecution to Greenberg: We're charging you only on 6 of the of 33 counts against you in exchange for your complete and honest co-operation. But if we catch you lying, we're charging you with the rest of the 27 counts. Excellent strategy by the prosecution. Way to make sure he gives up the dirt on Gaetz. Kind of shocked, however, that the yet-to-be charged accounts are largely the ones involving minors. Also, there is more than one instance of Greenbery taking payment for others to have sex with minors and the 17 year-old is the oldest of that lot ... very gross.

If you want to read up on how this will affect Gaetz ... it is long and complicated but Legal Eagle has a short 25 minute video that will help.



It should be noted that Gaetz is not named at this time or in the letter explicitly HOWEVER ...



Which is now VERY problematic for Gaetz as that can be taken as admission and/or failure to cooperate which means AT BEST ... he can plead down chargers. He is already labled himself as uncooperative which means no leanancy now.

Gaetz just outed himself as one under investigation and he has no ability to fight it going that route. If he really was innocent, he should keep his mouth shut and cooperate to clear his name. THEN get loud about it.

Thanks for the video. I'll check it out as soon as I can.

[Tami]

Graham: 'I accept the results of the election'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Monday that he accepts the results of the 2020 election, and urged Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, to focus on the upcoming midterm where the party wants to win back control of Congress.

“I accept the results of the election. ... 2020 is over to me, I'm ready to march on and hopefully take back the House and the Senate in 2022,” Graham told reporters in South Carolina.

Graham’s comments come as Trump has remained focused on the 2020 election, doubling down on his false claim that it was “stolen.” Trump’s legal team has lost dozens of challenges in court and GOP state officials along with former Attorney General William Barr have dismissed suggestions of widespread fraud, but that has done nothing to lower Trump’s rhetoric.
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While Graham, who voted to certify the 2020 results in January, said he accepted the results, he added that he would endorse making changes to election laws heading into 2022, including tighter voter ID requirements.

[Tami]

This was just unsealed. In the last weeks of the Trump administration, William Barr's Justice Department tried to use a secret grand jury subpoena to unmask @NunesAlt, a Devin Nunes parody account.

Twitter fought the order. "It appears to Twitter that the Subpoena may be related to Congressman Devin Nunes’s repeated efforts to unmask individuals behind parody accounts critical of him."


DoJ also got a gag order, claiming that disclosure of the subpoena would likely "result in flight from prosecution, destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation" of the Nunes parody account.

[BeastieRunner]

This was just unsealed. In the last weeks of the Trump administration, William Barr's Justice Department tried to use a secret grand jury subpoena to unmask @NunesAlt, a Devin Nunes parody account.

Twitter fought the order. "It appears to Twitter that the Subpoena may be related to Congressman Devin Nunes’s repeated efforts to unmask individuals behind parody accounts critical of him."


DoJ also got a gag order, claiming that disclosure of the subpoena would likely "result in flight from prosecution, destruction of or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, and serious jeopardy to the investigation" of the Nunes parody account.

Speaking of Nunes, his lawyer just got sanctioned for a frivolous and, "unreasonably and vexatiously" repeated lawsuit.

The judges are getting fed up with this nonsense.

With what you shared, I am seeing a definite pattern of abuse with Nunes of the legal system and it is fighting back.

Maybe just don't be a giant asshat Mr. Nunes?