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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Question: Anyone have any idea if Trump knows he didn't win but just kept pushing the lie in hopes of getting to remain in office? Or does he truly believe what he keeps spout off about the election?

I'm sure Trump knew, but his bloated ego wouldn't allow to accept that he lost. Remember, in Trump's warped mind, he's never lost ANYTHING in his life, whether it's Emmy awards, lawsuits against the NFL or presidential elections, if he didn't win, it was because he was robbed.

[Tami]

Crowd protests after police near Minneapolis shoot Black motorist

Police shot and killed a Black man on Sunday during a stop for a traffic violation, sparking protests and unrest in a suburb just miles away from where George Floyd was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis last May.

The man killed by police was identified by relatives and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Daunte Wright, 20.

Rocks and other objects were thrown at the Brooklyn Center Police Department building and there were reports of shots fired in the area of the police department, John Harrington, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a press conference. The unrest came after the police had heard reports of a crowd of between 100 and 200 people marching toward the police department.

Officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas, NBC News affiliate KARE reported.

Wright's mother, Katie Wright, told reporters at the scene that she received a call from her son on Sunday afternoon telling her that police had pulled him over for having air fresheners dangling from his rear-view mirror, illegal in Minnesota. She said she told him to put the police officers on the phone so she could give them car insurance details.

She then heard police tell her son to get out of the vehicle, she said, according to video shot by KARE.

"I heard police officers say, 'Daunte, don't run,'" she said through tears. The call ended, and she dialed his number again, and his girlfriend answered and said he had been shot.

“A minute later I called, and his girlfriend answered, which was the passenger in the car, and said that he’d been shot,” she said.

[Tami]

Nationwide ‘White Lives Matter’ Events Draw Mostly Counter-Protesters

A series of rumored “White Lives Matter” rallies police were bracing for in cities across the U.S. on Sunday largely did not come to fruition, as reporters on the ground noted that the number of demonstrators were vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters, if White Lives Matter supporters showed up at all.

[Tami]

POLITICO Playbook: Scoop: Cindy McCain set to land Biden ambassadorship

President JOE BIDEN is preparing to name Republican CINDY MCCAIN to a coveted ambassador post in Western Europe in what would be his administration’s first Republican appointee to a Senate-confirmed position.

McCain is undergoing vetting to be nominated for U.S. ambassador to the U.N. World Food Programme, a mission based in Rome, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. This comes after the administration declined to install at least one member from the opposing party in a Cabinet position — a practice of three consecutive presidents (BILL CLINTON, GEORGE W. BUSH and BARACK OBAMA) before DONALD TRUMP broke the streak.

Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. JOHN MCCAIN, gave Biden a critical boost in Arizona with her endorsement of the Democrat over Trump. Biden was the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry the state since Clinton in 1996.

McCain, 66, is undergoing a background check for the post. The Biden administration is expected to announce most of its ambassadors at the same time, rather than individually.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Crowd protests after police near Minneapolis shoot Black motorist

So sad. So senseless. So needless. So infuriating.

Nationwide ‘White Lives Matter’ Events Draw Mostly Counter-Protesters

That would be so funny if it wasn't so patently pathetic.

[Tami]

Local News

McCormick petitions are fraudulent, maybe criminal, N.J. Democrats say

Alleging the possibility that gubernatorial candidate Lisa McCormick submitted fraudulent nominating petitions, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee wants her removed from primary election ballot and has asked the Division of Elections to refer the case to law enforcement as a potential criminal act.

“The voters who are claimed to have signed Ms. McCormick’s petition did not in fact sign it, did not authorize their names to be used, and most importantly did not even know that their names or electronic signatures were being utilized by the McCormick campaign,” said Raj Parikh, the counsel to the state party.

McCormick, a shadowy perennial candidate, is challenging Gov. Phil Murphy in the Democratic primary.

After a limited investigation, Parikh said, at least 12 voters who appear as signers for McCormick’s petitions “confirmed that they never signed same, nor did they authorize their names or electronic signatures to be used. In fact, they have advised that they never communicated with Ms. McCormick or her campaign in any way.”

“This type of blatant and fraudulent activity in our elections system must not be tolerated, and those responsible should held accountable,” Parikh said.

All of McCormick’s 1,932 signatures were obtained electronically. The Democratic committee says none of them came with an independent electronic signature verification.

Parikh pointed to one example of a Livingston man who signed McCormick’s petition: Leonard Krawitz, who died on January 28 at age 97.

WBE might find her amusing

[seismic-2]

Question: Anyone have any idea if Trump knows he didn't win but just kept pushing the lie in hopes of getting to remain in office? Or does he truly believe what he keeps spout off about the election?

I suspect that he considered it a real possibility, maybe even a likelihood, that he would lose the election, but he figured it would be close and maybe 1 or 2 States would make the difference (as was the case with the Bush v. Gore election of 2000, which all came down to fewer than 2000 votes in Florida). That way, he could protest about the closeness of the vote and possible voting irregularities, resulting in a Supreme Court challenge that might reverse the outcome in those 1 or 2 States or rule that the State legislature would have the choose the electors. Trump made some statements, as I recall, about the importance of having Supreme Court Justices who might rule in his favor in such a challenge. Of course as it turned out, the election was not nearly that close (Trump would have had to reverse the outcomes in several States, so the pressure he exerted on the Georgia Secretary of State to "find" him 12,000 more votes wouldn't have made any difference even if he had succeeded). I suspect what happened is that his close advisers (Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller, etc.) assured him that if he could just get the outcome reversed in Georgia and Pennsylvania then enough other States' results would somehow "fall into line", and he would be ruled the winner. That's nonsense, of course, but it sounded good to Trump (who has only a minimal understanding of the operations of the Government), and naturally Fox News and right-wing radio hosts started telling their listeners that, and it became a self-reinforcing "truth" in the media Echo Chamber in which Trump and his minions dwell.

[Tami]

Mexico’s new migrant policy adds to Biden’s border woes

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — The message popped up on Pastor Juan Fierro’s phone one recent afternoon. U.S. border agents had expelled another group of Central American families to this Mexican city. Could someone take them in?

Fierro, an evangelical minister, was startled by the request. During most of the pandemic, officials in Juárez had sent newly arrived migrants to a quarantine center for 14 days. Suddenly it was full. “There was no place to take care of these people,” Fierro said. So his staff at the Good Samaritan shelter hauled bunk beds into an empty room and penned it in with battered wooden benches. Within days, the rudimentary “quarantine” center held 23 women and children.

President Biden hoped to put the brakes on a surge of U.S.-bound Central American families by relying on a Trump-era policy to return them to Mexico. But increasingly, this country is straining to cope with the influx. Mexico is now limiting the number of families it will allow back. That’s forced the U.S. government to accept most of them, as their numbers soar: About 53,000 members of family units were taken into custody in March, compared with 7,300 in January.

Mexico’s pushback has created a new obstacle as the Biden administration struggles to deal with what could be the biggest wave of migrants at the U.S. southern border in 20 years. Pressured by President Donald Trump, Mexico became a crucial buffer zone between Central America and the United States. Its authorities deported tens of thousands of U.S.-bound migrants and took back asylum seekers to await their U.S. court dates. As the coronavirus pandemic descended on both countries last year, the Trump administration adopted one of the most restrictive border policies ever, using a health measure called Title 42 to expel nearly all Central American migrants and asylum seekers to Mexico.

The Biden administration continued to use that rule for families and solo adults, while exempting unaccompanied children. Now U.S. officials fear Mexico’s refusal to go along with the family expulsions will have a cascade effect. As more Central Americans succeed in entering the U.S. immigration system, their relatives and neighbors back home are deciding to make the journey.

[worstblogever]

Local News

McCormick petitions are fraudulent, maybe criminal, N.J. Democrats say

WBE might find her amusing

Between Lisa McCormick and Roger Bacon... currently I don't think Gov. Murphy has a lot to worry about in the primary. Although, that race has already given me 2 CSDOTD candidates for next April 1st.

[Adam Allen]

Crowd protests after police near Minneapolis shoot Black motorist

I'm sure the police would want to focus on his having a warrant and attempting to run, but I have lived in Minnesota for over 20 years, and I'm sure I have always had something hanging from my rear view mirror. What's worse, while it has thankfully been quite a while since I was stopped for anything, I know that any of the times when I have been stopped, I never had a cop ever tell me it was illegal. I mean, I've been given like a warning for having a tail light out for instance, and you'd think they might mention the air freshener thing while they're at it, if that is illegal.

It sucks because it seems clearly a law that's on the books just to give them an excuse to stop someone, when they have no other reason. Apparently, this kid might still be alive, if they didn't have this bullshit reason to pretend the stop was justified.

[Adam Allen]

According to this story, police are saying they stopped him because the car had expired registration. And apparently, the cop meant to fire her taser.

How is that possible, though? Is a taser even shaped like a gun?

I mean, I don't even know if it makes it much better, if it legitimately was a mistake.

Edit: Well, meant to link a story, but apparently you can't link stories from AP?

[worstblogever]

It on this date in 2015 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of Charles Key, a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives who was nationally noteworthy for being an Oklahoma City Bombing Truther, who garnered a fanatical support base from right wing militia groups who believed that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were framed, and after 1998 hearings confirmed the guilty parties were in fact, those militia goons, Charles Key denounced the jury he picked's decision. As a legislator, though, Key pushed for the 10th Amendment to be used to nullify everything from the Affordable Care Act to firearms laws, and even co-sponsored Oklahoma's attempt to ban Sharia Law in their state, as if there is a huge Muslim population there in the first place.Key was thankfully forced out of office due to term limits.

In 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of Colorado State Senator Vicki Marble, who was first elected in 2012 with the help of Glenn Beck's 9/12 Tea Party movement. Since reaching office, she has been an utter embarrassment for the Colorado GOP. Marble's first debut in the news cycle about being, for lack of a better term, a marble-head was in April of 2013, where in a discussion over the pre-school education budget, she decided it would be a good time to rant about an MSNBC commercial promoting Melissa Harris-Perry's show, and also to compare Democrats' plans to Communism and ideas Hitler and the Third Reich had. She then had people paying attention when she spoke, and it didn't take too much longer for her to deliver. In August of 2013, when she decided to weigh in on the floor of the Colorado State Senate about the poverty levels of African Americans and Hispanics, and blamed the genetic health problems "the black race" faces on their love of barbecue and chicken. And guess what? Vicki Marble refused to apologize for her statement, even as the Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party threw her under the us for what she said. In her mind, she didn't do anything wrong, she was just "trying to start a dialogue". But as her first year in office was coming to a close, Vicki Marble brought colossally stupid to the table, instead of just her inflammatory and bigoted remarks previously when she began calling for legislation to prevent people from using food stamps to buy pot brownies from Colorado marijuana dispensaries... because she was afraid that was happening after she read an article on a parody news site about it. Marble's voting record has also seen an obsessive fascination with gun rights where even in light of the Aurora, Colorado mass shooting, she's been voting against any and all gun control bills, including co-sponsoring a bill to allow domestic violence offenders to continue to own a firearm, in spite of studies that show they are more likely to use those weapons against their accusers. On social issues... for whatever reason, Marble voted against Colorado's attempt to repeal the classification of adultery as a criminal offense in the state, and she also made news for being so anti-abortion that she sponsored a bill to amend the definition of assault and homicide to include any fetus "from conception through birth", which is the most overwhelming wide range of time in any of those end-around attempts at repealing Roe v. Wade we've ever seen from a Republican. And that's saying something. In spite of getting lambasted by the Denver Post for being a "hateful dissident" in opinion editorials, and having lackluster fundraising, Marble was re-elected rather easily with 58% of the vote in 2016. She has entered her second term in office, attempting to find ways to allow people to find loopholes to getting their kids vaccinated, and sponsoring a repeal of Colorado's rather modest gun control law to outlaw large-capacity ammunition magazines (the kind that was used to carry out the Aurora Massacre). That is, until October of 2017, when Vicki Marble went to visit a Cub Scout troop, and an 11-year old kid present asked her why she voted to allow domestic abusers to continue to have access to firearms, and why she made her comments about African Americans liking chicken back four years earlier. Now, staring a child in the eyes and admitting you made a mistake would be the human thing to do, but apparently, that sort of morality is beyond Vicki Marble, who LIED to the face of a Boy Scout and told him the story was “made up by the media”. (Not according to the record in the legislature it’s not, Vicki.) A week later, she wrote an op-ed in her local newspaper, changing her story again and admitting she DID say those things, and that they were “widely recognized as true”, but her remarks were “twisted by the PC police”. Can the optics get any worse? Marble threw enough of a fit that the Cub Scout was thrown out of his troop for asking the question Marble didn’t like (another troop quickly invited him to join, instead). But more alarmingly, she’s shown herself unable to accept the reality that Colorado has begun trending towards being a blue state, with a Democratic Governor, and a Democratic majority in the state legislature. Twice in March of 2019, she has responded to her frustration over oil and gas tax breaks that she sponsored not getting anywhere in the Colorado State Senate, she took to social media, and twice called on Northern Colorado (the more conservative part) to “SECEDE: from the state and form its own. And that’s not a misquote, or a misuse of capitalization, when she writes the word, it’s in all caps so you know she’s serious. She then began prodding her followers to potentially commit a domestic terror attack, telling one, "Let the ‘Ambush begin….you know what I mean…. Kyle.” When a local reporter tried following up to find out if she was serious and what the hell she was playing at, she threatened HIM, saying, "I’m coming after you." After much criticism, she tried blaming it on her constituents, saying she’s being hearing talk of secession from THEM (even if that’s the case, she’s been caught throwing gas on that fire.) As Vicki Marble approached the end of her career in the Colorado State Senate due to term limits in 2020, she’s quickly becoming the target of ethics investigations, because she’s blissfully unaware of the fact that it’s a conflict of interests and pretty corrupt to have the employees of oil and gas companies who donate money to your campaign also pay for town halls you host in public restaurants, then shrug and claim you had “no idea” who actually was footing the bill. Because we all know ignorance absolves you of a crime, right? Instead, Marble has opted to accept a step down into the chamber of the Colorado House of Representatives in 2020 but voters seemed well aware of her reputation and she was defeated in the GOP Primary for that seat. As she is now out of office, 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 978-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Patrick Neville

Welcome to what is the 978th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Patrick Neville, who has served in the Colorado House of Representatives for District 45 since first winning office in 2014, and rose to become the Colorado House Minority Leader. Neville was brought to our attention in April of 2020 as he started immediately losing his s*** at non-essential businesses being closed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and was trying to declare things like purchasing dishwashers “essential” when, y’know, people can do dishes by hand. But he wasn’t content to be foiled so easily by constituents who saw right through the game he was playing, so he followed it up by declaring that Gov. Polis’ stay-at-home orders were “Gestapo-like orders”. We will note that Polis is Colorado’s first Jewish governor, and first openly gay Governor. So, given who the victims of the Nazis were, this only adds to how revolting Neville’s statements were. Neville’s meek apology was that he should have said, “authoritarian” instead of “Gestapo”.

Over the next several months, any measure Polis would take to keep Coloradans safe, even something as simple as ordering mask mandates was met with Neville whining about it somehow being “a clear violation of our civil liberties”. Neville is so focused on just being a partisan hack that he even aligned himself with conservative pundit/white-nationalism fan Michelle Malkin to file a frivolous lawsuit targeting Polis over the mask mandate.

How much of an ***hole is he? Well, just prior to the 2020 election, he paid for an attack ad to be run against a Democratic state legislator, Brianna Titone who was the first transgender woman to win office in Colorado, where her “dead name” was used and she was accused of “attacking law enforcement and sexualizing children”. So, yes, that much of an ***hole. And we’ll note not only is the “trans people preying on children” meme revolting, but her “attacks on law enforcement” is a true lie, considering Titone’s noted as having volunteered her services to law enforcement agencies in the search and recovery of human remains. (Kind of hard to attack someone you’re actively giving your time to help, Patty-boy.)

Outside Covidiocy and transphobia that we’ve seen from Neville, we’ll also add that just based on his legislative career, we can tell you he’s a Personhood supporter, he voted against a ban on gay conversion therapy, supports anti-vax measures (of course the guy who’s opposed to stay at home orders during the Covid-19 pandemic also wants loopholes for required vaccinations for children votes against equal pay legislation, has a decidedly anti-immigrant philosophy, voted against the repeal of the death penalty in Colorado, and is enough of an extremist on guns that he has sponsored legislation to try and nullify federal firearms laws.

We’ll note that he is now the subject of a corruption investigation after a Denver Post reporter published a story about Patrick Neville using his office to funnel campaign money to his family business. Neville responded as any level-headed Republican with respect for a free press would, by doxxing the reporter and hoping one of his brain dead followers would go attack him in his own home. The Colorado GOP mumbled a bit about potential sanctions, and Neville stepped down from all leadership positions he held in the state legislature, his future in Colorado politics now far less bright than they were a year ago.

While Patrick Neville was re-elected to a fourth term in the Colorado House of Representatives in 2020, we do have the good news that he will be term-limited in 2022. Expect him to try to find a spot in the Colorado State Senate or perhaps that he might make a run for Congress to still be a s***ty partisan in American politics somehow beyond that expiration date.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

According to this story, police are saying they stopped him because the car had expired registration. And apparently, the cop meant to fire her taser.

How is that possible, though? Is a taser even shaped like a gun?

I mean, I don't even know if it makes it much better, if it legitimately was a mistake.

Edit: Well, meant to link a story, but apparently you can't link stories from AP?

I've seen pictures of tasers which are usually yellow and made of plastic. I won't pretend I understand what goes on in the head of a cop in a stress filled situation, but how in the hell can someone confuse a piece of yellow plastic with an actual weapon? That just doesn't make sense.

[Tami]

According to this story, police are saying they stopped him because the car had expired registration. And apparently, the cop meant to fire her taser.

How is that possible, though? Is a taser even shaped like a gun?

I mean, I don't even know if it makes it much better, if it legitimately was a mistake.

Edit: Well, meant to link a story, but apparently you can't link stories from AP?

Police: Minnesota officer meant to draw Taser, not handgun

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — The police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb apparently intended to fire a Taser, not a handgun, as the man struggled with police, the city’s police chief said Monday.

Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as “an accidental discharge.” It happened as police were trying to arrest the man on an outstanding warrant.

“I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” the officer is heard shouting on her body cam footage released at a news conference. She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police outside his car and gets back behind the wheel.

After firing a single shot from her handgun, the car speeds away, and the officer is heard saying, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”

Daunte Wright, 20, died Sunday in a metropolitan area that was already on edge because of the trial of the first of four police officers charged in George Floyd’s death. Wright’s death sparked violent protests, with officers in riot gear clashing with demonstrators into Monday morning.

Gannon said at a news conference that the officer made a mistake, and he released the body camera footage less than 24 hours after the shooting.

The footage showed three officers around a stopped car, which authorities said was pulled over because it had expired registration tags. When another officer attempts to handcuff Wright, a second officer tells Wright he’s being arrested on a warrant. That’s when the struggle begins, followed by the shooting. Then the car travels several blocks before striking another vehicle.