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

[AnakinFlair]

Very badly. The liberal media is shutting up the truth, trying to silence all the GOP, it wont be long before all the GOP are in camps etc.. She is going to look into lawyers in the morning.

That reminds me of customers who will scream at us that they'll call their lawyers to sue the company I work for when we deny their claim for $50. I'm always thinking "You do that, and the lawyer will probably bill you $60-$100 just for the preliminary stuff."

[mogwen]

Very badly. The liberal media is shutting up the truth, trying to silence all the GOP, it wont be long before all the GOP are in camps etc.. She is going to look into lawyers in the morning.

I feel sorry for you, it must be heartbreaking to see someone close to you going down the rabbit hole of madness and conspiracy.

[JackDaw]

I say, set the Precedent.

We already know that the plans of the GOP if they retake the majority (and it's not at all a dead certainty that they are making it out to be) is to Impeach Biden, which they assuredly will do. What will they do to House Dems? Keep AOC off committees, censure Pelosi and others. Go ahead and sink yourself.

The party that has just become dominant places its own choices on key committees.

The precedent for that was set a few thousand years ago!

[Agent Z]

They stormed the Capitol to overturn the results of an election they didn't vote in

They were there to "Stop the Steal" and to keep the President they revered in office, yet records show that some of the rioters who stormed the US Capitol did not vote in the very election they were protesting.

One was Donovan Crowl, an ex-Marine who charged toward a Capitol entrance in paramilitary garb on January 6 as the Pro-Trump crowd chanted "who's our President?"
Federal authorities later identified Crowl, 50, as a member of a self-styled militia organization in his home state of Ohio and affiliated with the extremist group the Oath Keepers. His mother told CNN that he previously told her "they were going to overtake the government if they...tried to take Trump's presidency from him." She said he had become increasingly angry during the Obama administration and that she was aware of his support for former President Donald Trump.

Despite these apparent pro-Trump views, a county election official in Ohio told CNN that he registered in 2013 but "never voted nor responded to any of our confirmation notices to keep him registered," so he was removed from the voter rolls at the end of 2020 and the state said he was not registered in Ohio. A county clerk in Illinois, where Crowl was once registered, also confirmed he was not an active voter anywhere in the state.

Many involved in the insurrection professed to be motivated by patriotism, falsely declaring that Trump was the rightful winner of the election. Yet at least eight of the people who are now facing criminal charges for their involvement in the events at the Capitol did not vote in the November 2020 presidential election, according to an analysis of voting records from the states where protestors were arrested and those states where public records show they have lived. They came from states around the country and ranged in age from 21 to 65.

[...]Among those who didn't vote were a 65-year-old Georgia man who, according to government documents, was found in his van with a fully-loaded pistol and ammunition, and a Louisiana man who publicly bragged about spending nearly two hours inside the Capitol after attending Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally. Another was a 21-year-old woman from Missouri who prosecutors say shared a video on Snapchat that showed her parading around with a piece of a wooden sign from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. And a Florida man previously convicted of attempted murder who was accused by the government of refusing to leave the Capitol likely did not have the option to cast a ballot because of his unpaid court fines. [...]

[...]Jessica Stern, a Boston University professor who has spent around 30 years researching extremists, said that while she hasn't spoken with the individuals involved in the events at the Capitol, from her interviews with other violent extremists, she believes a number of factors could have been at play. They could have believed the system was rigged, as the "Stop the Steal" movement claims, in which case there would be no point in voting. They could be more attracted to the theater, violence or attention they would get from a demonstration like the one at the Capitol than to actually achieving their purported goal -- in this case, different election results. [...]

Jack Griffith, a 25-year-old from Tennessee, trumpeted his arrival in Washington DC with a Facebook post saying, "THE CAVALRY IS COMING!!!!," using the hashtag "#MAGA," according to court documents. Shortly after leaving the Capitol on January 6, he posted a message of disappointment. "I hate to be that guy, but The New World Order beat us," he wrote. "Trump was our greatest champion, and it still wasn't enough. He tried his very best. He did so much, but he's only one man...I even helped stormed(sic) the capitol today, but it only made things worse...Why, God? Why? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN US? Unless...Trump still has a plan?"

These online missives describing his participation in the Capitol siege were later used by the Department of Justice to build a criminal case against him. Griffith faces a number of charges, including violent entry or disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Election data from Tennessee and Alabama, where public records show Griffith had lived, showed that he had voted in the 2016 and 2018 elections but not the 2020 presidential election. The public defender who initially represented him declined to comment. Another attorney listed as representing him now did not respond to requests for comment.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/01/u...nvs/index.html

[worstblogever]

Very badly. The liberal media is shutting up the truth, trying to silence all the GOP, it wont be long before all the GOP are in camps etc.. She is going to look into lawyers in the morning.

I'm sure she'll fare as well in court as Trump's lawyers have.

You might want to point that out, before she wastes money on legal representation.

[worstblogever]

Reading up on the post-presidency impeachment of Donald Trump, and how all five of his lawyers quit on him only days before the Senate trial was due to start, because, per reports... he wants them to go with the legal strategy that it was fine that he only incited a mob to storm the Capitol building because he really believes the election fraud is real.

Full stop: Trump is effectively going to go with a "Stand Your Ground" defense for a coup attempt. Because he believes there is a threat of a conspiracy to steal the election from him, anything violent he did in its aftermath is justified.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Reading up on the post-presidency impeachment of Donald Trump, and how all five of his lawyers quit on him only days before the Senate trial was due to start, because, per reports... he wants them to go with the legal strategy that it was fine that he only incited a mob to storm the Capitol building because he really believes the election fraud is real.

Full stop: Trump is effectively going to go with a "Stand Your Ground" defense for a coup attempt. Because he believes there is a threat of a conspiracy to steal the election from him, anything violent he did in its aftermath is justified.

Disturbingly predictable. Because of his horribly bloated ego, Trump will NEVER allow himself to believe he lost the election and will spend his last dollar trying to prove he was right. Meanwhile....

Trump Raised $76 Million — Then Spent Nothing On Vote Challenges Or Georgia

Trump’s bait-and-switch ads cited the need to contest his election loss and for the GOP to hold the Senate as he sought funds for his “leadership” PAC. And where did that money go. IN. HIS. POCKET.

====================

A ‘Cancer’: Mitch McConnell Excoriates Marjorie Taylor Greene For Conspiracy Theories

The Senate minority leader said the freshman Republican lawmaker was “not living in reality.” So, who will Republicans follow, Moscow Mitch or the loons supporting Margie the Maniac? Meanwhile....

**********

Democrats Ready To Kick Marjorie Taylor Greene Off Committees If Republicans Don’t

“If Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the courage to do what is right ... then we will,” said the chairman of the House Rules Committee. Go for it! Get rid of that harridan!

**********

Biden Threatens Sanctions On Myanmar After Military Coup

There have been recent and serious concerns about Myanmar, also known as Burma, backsliding into authoritarianism. No doubt Joe saw what happened in Myanmar nearly happening here, though with white nationalists, not the military.

**********

Twitter Bans MyPillow Company Account After CEO Mike Lindell Hijacks It For Lies

Lindell used the MyPillow account to baselessly accuse Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey of being involved in election fraud. Not exactly a smart move. In fact, it was dumb as hell and only hurt his business. REAL smooth, Mike!

**********

Hate Groups Migrating Online, Making Tracking More Difficult

The levels of hate and bigotry in America have not diminished, a rep for the Southern Poverty Law Center told the Associated Press.

**********

White House ‘Obviously’ Reviewing Trump’s Ongoing Intelligence Briefings: Jen Psaki

Critics see the ex-president as a risk because of his Russia ties, his foreign businesses — and especially his supporters who stormed the Capitol. Damn straight he's a risk.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Pat Bertroche, a failed candidate for Congress back in the Tea Party Wave of 2010 who was a rambling, incoherent idiot for a man who went through medical school, only to be worked into a berserker frenzy by the passage of the Affordable Care Act to the point where he was lying to the public and perpetrating the myth that its implementation would lead to “healthcare rationing”. His website had a link to the issue of terrorism which began with the policy of “Kill ‘Em All”, before delving into a story about a mass suicide he claimed to personally witnessed by five Iranians in Vienna that also has no basis in reality. Bertroche was also opposed to same sex marriage, claiming that the Supreme Court was stepping out of line to rule on the subject, and just needed to “let Congress vote on the Defense of Marriage Act” which was also off-putting, because Congress HAD voted on it back in 1996, and the Supreme Court had, many years later, ruled it unconstitutional and overturned the law… which is how those two branches of government work. Anyway, what really seemed to be the moment that finished off Pat Bertroche’s hopes at heading to Washington, D.C., was his campaign trail idea to solve our immigration crisis by implanting microchips into illegal immigrants that get caught so they can be tracked and can’t sneak back over again. Sane people, of course, realize that’s not just an impractical idea, it’s a human rights violation. Needless to say, Bertroche did not win office in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, and has faded from relevance since.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of David Rivera, a former one term member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 25th Congressional District for one term, arriving with the Tea Party Wave in 2011 and leaving two years later in 2013. Prior to his Congressional career, he was making noise in the Florida House of Representatives, where he was good friends with, and housemates with future Senator Marco Rubio, where Rivera stacked up a HUGE cloud of ethics violations. Where does one even begin with this guy? Well, it all started back in the 2012 elections, when Rivera’s primary opponent, Marili Cancio, happened to dig up an old police report from 1994 that showed there was a David M. Rivera (same name) who was charged with repeated acts of domestic violence against a Florida woman. The rabbit hole went deeper, though. The domestic violence storyline was something that Rivera had been trying to shake as far back as his career as a state legislator, but how he supposedly shook the stigma of abusing his girlfriend in 2002 was a bit more suspicious. Rivera’s opponent in that election had planned to release a series of fliers about the allegation of domestic abuse to stir up anti-Rivera sentiment. David Rivera just coincidentally was involved in a traffic accident with the delivery vehicle that was trying to mail out those fliers before the deadline, where he claims that he was trying to flag down the driver who also had HIS fliers, and in the process of trying to wave him down on the road, the delivery driver lost control of their vehicle (totally not his fault, right) and crashed. Which is news to the delivery company, who recall Rivera just colliding with them and running them off the road. In 2011, under the David Rivera Wikipedia page, they had a “controversies” section with both the story of accusations of domestic violence, and the bizarrely convenient traffic accident listed. That’s not uncommon for political candidates. What became a bit of a point of a contention, though, was Rivera’s press secretary, Leslie Veiga, kept logging into Wikipedia to delete any negatives about him, whenever they would be edited into his biography. Rivera’s press secretary had to be busy with those attempted scrub jobs. Considering there were also news stories about how he and Marco Rubio’s shared home was foreclosed on in 2010 while both were running for office (and presumably were trying to paint a picture of themselves as “fiscally responsible Republicans”). There was also the fact that in all disclosure reports, David Rivera listed the U.S. Agency for International Development as his employer… even though the USAID office itself never had a record of even hiring him. Or say, after how Rivera went above and beyond in the Florida House of Representatives with Marco Rubio to help change the law in Florida so that dog racing tracks in the state were permitted to also have big-revenue drawing slot machines, a specific dog track made a $510,000 payment to a consulting firm run by Rivera’s mother. (Because that doesn’t seem like bribery, at all.) In spite of being one of the shadiest people in politics running for Congress in 2010, David Rivera managed to ride the Tea Party Wave to Washington, where he would vote against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (not surprising given his history of domestic violence), tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act repeatedly, and defund Planned Parenthood. However, Rivera continued to have allegations of ethical misconduct dog him, yet still. FBI investigations were launched into his finances, including reimbursing himself for over $60,000 in fraudulent campaign expenses, and failing to disclose $137,000 in loans from a company owned by his mother. That investigation concluded in 2015, and a judge recommended $58,000 in fines towards Rivera for the offenses. So with all the dirt on him before he was in office, and the dirt continuing to pile up... David Rivera was facing a tough road to re-election in a presidential election year in 2012, where he would again be facing off against Joe Garcia. So, he got even more desperate, and even more crooked, if you could believe that even possible. You see, Rivera thought his only hope of winning would be if Garcia was badly damaged in a primary battle. And that's apparently how Rivera funded Justin Lemar Sternad, a political neophyte, as that shadow candidate in the 2012 Primary for Florida's 26th Congressional District's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (running there because of redistricting). Sternad was running attack ads, for example, to make English the national language (in Miami), and saying that Joe Garcia had left his wife when she had contracted cancer, not unlike the stories about Newt Gingrich, from once upon a time. Another FBI investigation discovered that Sternad's campaign manager was Ana Alliegro, a self-styled "conservative bad girl", and a close personal friend of David Rivera's. Rather than be interviewed by the FBI and potentially implicate herself and Rivera, Alliegro fled to Nicaragua, where she is working as a hairdresser until presumably, the statute of limitations on any crime she or Rivera may have committed runs out. Because now that she’s there, she’s admitted Rivera’s plan to use Sternad as a proxy to smear Garcia. Needless to say, Rivera lost in 2012, only getting 43% of the vote. He attempted a comeback campaign in 2014 to again run for the seat in Florida's 26th, but couldn't even advance past the primary, only earning 7% of the vote after running what The National Journal called "The Worst Congressional Comeback Ever". Rivera finally accepted his pathway to Congress is blocked, at least for now, and tried to run for his old district in the Florida House of Representatives. He STILL lost that race by 53 votes. Going into the 2018 elections, Rivera is still taking a crack and finding a way to regain his seat in the Florida state legislature, but was having trouble campaigning as he was on the run from federal investigators, trying to evade federal marshals looking to serve him for a federal lawsuit he’s targeted by.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Jennifer Carroll, the former Florida state legislator and Lieutenant Governor of Florida. Back in 2004, when Carroll was still a state legislator, she was appointed to the National Commission on Presidential Scholars. She was forced to resign, however, when it was discovered in an investigation by CBS News that many Bush administration appointees were slotted for positions using degrees from phony diploma mills. Carroll herself had "attended" Kensington University and received a degree from them, and the Bush Dept. Education picked her based on those credentials. Amidst the controversy, she was forced to resign. After keeping her head down for six years, Carroll ended up winning the office of Lieutenant Governor in 2010, albeit with 48% of the vote even with the Tea Party momentum behind her. Then again, maybe her mediocre victory was because of reports she may have falsified documents to take advantage of a government program, but whatever. Carroll again began to try and seek out the limelight, perhaps thinking of a future run for Governor of Florida or other office for herself, when she gave a terrifying speech before the Faith and Freedom Coalition in 2011 where the ranted, “Today unfortunately many in the media would like nothing better to ridicule Christians: they promote ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ they place doubt in the public’s mind that Christ was not risen and they condemn the ‘Passion of Christ,’ yet they sensationalize stories that call for the end of prayer in school and removing the name of God from our country’s pledge. Ladies and gentlemen, these are very sad times when we allow the minority to poison the minds of the majority. This is exactly what dictators and socialist rulers did.” But then again, is only gives us the pleasure of pointing out the hypocrisy of the fact that the God-fearing' Carroll, and her anti-gay stances was embroiled in a sex scandal in July of 2012, right around the time she became a member of Mitt Romney's election campaign. Carroll was allegedly caught engaging in a lesbian affair with one of her aides. Now, the smart way for Carroll to have dismissed that rumor would have been to say she was married for 29 years, or cite her supposedly strong Christian beliefs. She opted instead to mention that "Black women that look like me don’t engage in relationships like that", which only sparked more outrage and forced her to apologize for her insensitive remarks. Only six months after that controversy, Jennifer Carroll's career was over after she was implicated in a $300 million multistate racketeering investigation into a nonprofit veteran's charity organization she formerly ran, Allied Veterans for the World. The charity itself was running illegal online "Internet Sweepstakes cafes" that were actually just online gambling. Even more shocking was that out of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Allied Veterans of the World was pulling in, the investigation found they were lying about how much they were donating to Department of Veterans' Affairs charities, and had only had sent 2% of its earnings to them, pocketing the rest. Carroll had actually introduced a bill briefly in 2010 while a state legislator to legalize internet gambling cafes, but after her connection to Allied Veterans of the World was mentioned, she quickly yanked the legislation, and blamed it as a mistake by one of her aides. With Gov. Rick Scott already furious that she was embroiled in a variety of scandals, including another that her travel budget had increased thirty-fold and now was somehow $300,000 a MONTH, so Scott made Carroll fall on her sword and resign, also signing an executive order to force her pay a (GASP) $1000 fine. She had the nerve to whine about it and say she felt "betrayed" by the fine, but when you consider the guy running Carroll's organization ended up being sentenced to six years. Perhaps the best epitaph for her political career was the New York Times' summary that her tenure as lieutenant governor was “marred by scandal and poor judgment” and she was “increasingly viewed as an embarrassment to the man who chose her for the job.”

On this date in 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Brandon Hixon, a former three term member of the Idaho House of Representatives who was first elected back in 2012, at the age of only 30. Compared to a lot of Idaho Republicans we’ve profiled, Hixon was practically mellow, with his only moments that seemed even somewhat radical included him voting for bills to try and nullify federal firearms regulations, or his bill to attempt to allow the Bible to be used as an educational reference in public schools. But the reason why Brandon Hixon got a CSGOPOTD profile has more to do with his resignation, and the tragic end to his story. Hixon abruptly resigned in October of 2017, and while at first, the details were murky, the local press soon got law enforcement to confirm Hixon was under investigation for sexually abusing multiple young girls. During the investigation, police noted he was more concerned that the accusation would “ruin his career” than much else. Hixon was divorced (his ex-wife is on record saying she knew nothing about her husband’s crimes), and during what had to have been a depressing holiday season for him, what with being alone and looking at a prison sentence where he would not be treated well by others while incarcerated (child molesters not being popular behind bars), began to try and drink his sorrows away. Which led to a DUI arrest where his blood-alcohol level was twice the limit. A few weeks later, and Hixon was busted for DUI a second time. In early January of 2018, Hixon got his gun, and took his own life with it to avoid going to jail.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Rob Schaaf, a now former Missouri State Senator who made the jump from the Missouri House of Representatives after four terms in that body in the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and served four terms in the State Senate. What set Schaaf out from the rest of the pack in the Missouri GOP for us was when back in 2012, he was involved in debate on a bill that, if passed, would monitor the amount of painkillers being distributed to individuals more closely, as a way to prevent overdoses during our country’s current opioid crisis. While a lot of Republicans might just regurgitate the same lie they tell where they say they believe in smaller government, and that’s why they would be against creating such a database… Rob Schaaf isn’t that subtle. No, he straight up admitted that he sees opioid overdoses as a way to remove patients “from the gene pool”. Schaaf also supported a bill to allow public prayer in schools that obviously is a violation of the separation of church and state, a bill to begin the unconstitutional and failed conservative policy of drug testing welfare recipients, voted for Missouri’s insane attempt at blocking the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Environmental Treaty from being enacted, a bill that bans the enforcement of “foreign laws” aimed at stopping Sharia Law in the United States, and a bill aimed at nullifying federal firearms laws. Schaaf’s career was brought to an end in 2018 thanks to term limits.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Laura Loomer, an anti-Muslim hatemonger, conspiracy theoriest, and general example of what would happen if you fed a cave full of bats Chipotle and Ex-Lax. More importantly, we’re profiling this bigot because she was also a Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Florida’s 21st Congressional District in 2020, looking to challenge Democratic Congresswoman Lois Frankel. Now, if her name sounds familiar, that might be because you remember she’s vile enough in her opinions that she has been banned from virtually every social media platform, including Twitter, which is a TALL order in today’s world. And yet, she managed to pull of that achievement after repeatedly defending Islamophobia as “rational” and that Islam is “cancer”, before she finally sealed her ban by harassing Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with Islamophobic posts (among them accusing her of marrying her own brother to gain citizenship), and responded to her Twitter ban by marching on the company’s headquarters, handcuffing herself in a door while wearing a Jewish label like what the Nazis would have put on Jews during the Third Reich, and comparing her treatment to “the Holocaust” while also accusing Twitter of carrying out a double-standard for banning people like Alex Jones (deranged conspiracy theorist), Milo Yianappolous (white nationalist that advocated for pedophilia), and Roger Stone (convicted felon and general right wing nut job) that showed they supported Sharia Law (she is bugs*** crazy, don’t try to make sense of that). While Loomer thought this would be a great inconvenience to Twitter, they ignored her and went about their workday. Having been determined enough in her silly idea of a “protest”, Loomer forgot to bring a key to her own handcuffs and soon realized she had trapped herself, and nobody was coming to get her. The NYPD showed up and just put a barricade around her and let her know they weren’t removing her until Twitter asked to press charges, and they said they had no plans to. At that point, Loomer started listing her demands to the police which amounted to, ”I’m not saying people shouldn’t be banned but why are they banning me? ... I think there’s a double standard. It’s egregious, Dorsey thinks I’m a terrorist. I’m not a terrorist If I have to, I’ll pee on myself. I haven’t eaten or drunken today.” Of course, that’s sillier and far less scary when she threatens suicide over being banned from social media platforms. This is the sort of idiocy and faux victimhood you would expect from someone who once worked for alt-right provocateur James O’Keefe at Project Veritas, and who got suspended from Barry University for trying to start a “Humanitarian Club” that supported ISIS. (They got caught trying to create the thing that they would be outraged at the university for “creating”, as is often the case with James O’Keefe funded “journalism”.) Meanwhile, she has compared CNN to ISIS. Loomer has denied being a white nationalist because she’s Jewish, but she repeatedly defends other white nationalists and their policies, and can, in the same sentence, use her background in defense and then immediately go into spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about George Soros being a Nazi collaborator. Loomer files frivolous lawsuits she files against people who have the nerve to ban her from their social media platform or mock her deranged behavior online. Loomer actually won the GOP Primary for Florida’s 21st, but only got 39% of the vote in the general election against Lois Frankel. Post-election, Loomer of course jumped into the narrative that there was massive voter fraud that somehow made her lose by 20 points, adding fuel to the fire that would eventually engulf the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th. As Loomer stands almost no chance of ever being elected, we will retire her profile and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 957-45, since this was established in July 2014.


Enrique Tarrio

Welcome to what is the 957th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Enrique Tarrio, a guy who ran for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 27th Congressional District in 2020, but whom is far more known as the leader of the white nationalist hate group known as the Proud Boys. Yes, this Cuban American sea-worthy douche canoe is CEO of the Proud Boys, the Florida state director of Latinos for Trump, and has a criminal record for repeated instances of theft. He was convicted on theft charges in 2004, for which he served three years probation, and in 2013 he was arrested again after getting caught stealing $1.2 million worth of diabetes test strips from Abbott Labs, which he attempted to resell when he was caught. For the second offense, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, of which he only served 16 of them.

Once released, he returned to Miami, where in May of 2017 he was recruited by noted white nationalist/pro-pedophilia ***hole Milo Yiannopolous to join the group, rising quickly up their ranks. Tarrio was identified as one of the many Proud Boys who terrorized Charlottesville in August of 2017, claiming it was to defend Confederate statues, and within about a year, he had risen to become to new chairman of the group after personally carrying out physical attacks on “Antifa” agents in Portland, Oregon in June of 2018. This had a lot to do with the Proud Boys looking to gaslight the American people that they weren’t a fascist, white nationalist hate group because their leader was of Cuban descent.

Tarrio managed to get in the background behind a Trump MAGA hate rally in February of 2019, wearing a “Roger Stone did nothing wrong” T-shirt. He began associating with the same utter-piece-of-s*** Roger Stone throughout his trial for coordinating efforts between the Trump 2020 campaign and Russian hackers to steal Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, and in court, Stone admitted he was palling around with Tarrio and his hate group. By March of 2019, Tarrio had been banned from Twitter, and in August 2019, Tarrio again led the Proud Boys to terrorize Portland.

Enrique Tarrio thought this all made him a viable candidate for Congress, but he ended up dropping out of the race for Florida’s 27th Congressional District prior to the GOP Primary. Because apparently leading a hate group is not something that helps on your resume. Undeterred, he resumed being a hatemonger and plotting to reinstall Donald Trump for a second term in office, even though he did not win the election.

On December 12, 2020, Tarrio posted selfies from within the gates of the Trump White House, leading to confusion as to how someone with a criminal record got in there. The Trump administration denied inviting him, but we all know how reliable sources of truth they were for four years. He then went to march all over Washington, D.C., making it a point to lead the Proud Boys to specifically attack historical black churches in our nation’s capitol, even boasting that he was the one who yanked a Black Lives Matter flag off the front of one.

That made it pretty easy for law enforcement to arrest this fascist twat on January 4th, 2021, making sure he wasn’t on the ground to storm the capitol as part of Donald Trump’s coup attempt two days later, as he almost definitely planned to given his lawless activities in DC only days earlier. Enrique Tarrio is currently in jail, facing potential hate crime charges, and is already stated he will plead guilty to some charge related to that incident. Whatever he is charged with, we hope he ends up going away for a long, long time. And he'll do well in prison, when the other inmates learn he was an FBI informant. Have fun in there, Enrique!

[Tami]

[Tami]

Fence at Capitol blocks DC government from enacting new laws

WASHINGTON (AP) — That foreboding black fence erected around the U.S. Capitol building has had an unintentional side effect: walling off the local government’s ability to enact new laws.

Washington, D.C., city officials say dozens of new local laws have been bottlenecked because of the lockdown of the Capitol building after the violent Jan. 6 attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Under terms of the District’s tortured relationship with the federal government, physical paper copies of all new laws must be hand-delivered separately to Senate and House leadership. They cannot be mailed or emailed.

“We are unable to get through the fences. We are trying to find a way to deliver the legislation,” D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said Monday. “Sooner or later, there’s going to be a gate that opens.”

The problem was resolved by Monday afternoon. Nyasha Smith, the secretary of the D.C. Council, told The Associated Press that her office met “off-campus” Monday with a House of Representatives staffer to deliver the documents for House leadership. Last Friday, they did the same with a member of Vice President Kamala Harris’ staff; Harris, as vice president, presides over the Senate.

But D.C. officials say the episode shines a light on the larger issue: the fact that D.C. isn’t a state and needs to run its local laws past Congress in the first place.

Mendelson said “about 60” pieces of legislation had been held up so far. “It is an irrational and unsustainable situation that we cannot pass permanent legislation that can become permanent law,” he said. “It just shouldn’t be this way.”

[DrNewGod]

The Atlantic's findings disturb me. Trumpism is showing signs of being a genuine movement. I guess the big question remains, what happens when the man himself is off the board?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Atlantic's findings disturb me. Trumpism is showing signs of being a genuine movement. I guess the big question remains, what happens when the man himself is off the board?

Short and sweet: it dies on the vine. If SDNY nails Trump's ass to the wall and he's sent to prison, no one can take his place, not Don Junior, not Eric, and damn sure not Ivanka. Trumpism is all about racism, white nationalism and white grievance, without their fearless leader who spews all that venom like lava, Trumpanzees become marginalized.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Short and sweet: it dies on the vine. If SDNY nails Trump's ass to the wall and he's sent to prison, no one can take his place, not Don Junior, not Eric, and damn sure not Ivanka. Trumpism is all about racism, white nationalism and white grievance, without their fearless leader who spews all that venom like lava, Trumpanzees become marginalized.

Pretty much. I mean, what is Trumperism, exactly? Only one person has the lack of shame and force of personality to advocate for it, and hopefully he won't last much longer.