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

[Tami]

Trump Hotel raised prices to deter QAnon conspiracists, police files show

Police intelligence documents show that Washington’s Trump Hotel raised its rates “as a security tactic”, in the hope of deterring Trump-supporting QAnon supporters from staying there in early March, on a day which some believed would see Trump restored to office.

The information, which police gleaned from a Business Insider version of a story published in Forbes on 6 February, was confirmed in an 8 February intelligence briefing stolen by ransomware hackers from Washington’s Metropolitan police department (MPD).

The hackers from the Babuk group subsequently published those documents online, and transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets redistributed them to news outlets including the Guardian.

As Forbes reported in February, Trump International hotel in Washington raised its rates to 180% of the normal seasonal charge for 3 and 4 March this year.

That was a date upon which some adherents to the QAnon conspiracy movement believed would see Trump once again sworn in as president, based on an interpretation of the US constitution influenced by a belief held by many “sovereign citizens” that the US government was secretly usurped by a foreign corporation in 1871, and all legal and constitutional changes since that date are illegitimate.

The swearing-in date of US presidents was 4 March until the passage of the 20th amendment in 1933, and believers thought that Trump would restore his presidency and constitutional government on that date in Washington.

While Forbes suggested that the rate hike might be “price gouging or simply opportunistic marketing”, the internal police document said “MPD’s intelligence division confirmed with Trump Hotel management that they raised their rates as a security tactic to prevent protesters from booking rooms at their hotel should anyone travel to DC”.

[Hellion]

Trump Hotel raised prices to deter QAnon conspiracists, police files show

I don't know what the going rate is for a room at Trumpland, but I'm pretty sure his average supporter couldn't have afforded it even before the price hike.

[Mister Mets]

We both know the kinds of conversations about race and racism that this law will be used to shut down and which ones it won't.

Honestly, we don't.

But I'd like to hear your rationale.

[Tendrin]

Honestly, we don't.

But I'd like to hear you rationale.

Yeah, we do. It's called paying attention to how laws like that have been weaponized in the past and the context in which these laws are being passed now in opposition to 'critical race theory' that's already largely not taught in schools. When the people who think 'BLM' is a 'marxist black supremacy organization' are the ones passing these laws, we know *exactly* who's going to be allowed to speak about race and who isn't.

[numberthirty]

https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/202...ial-slurs.html

Flint councilman offers no apologies for homophobic, racial slurs

[Tendrin]

Conservative luminary Brent Bozell on Bouchard:

https://twitter.com/BrentBozell/stat...50066540249104

What Bouchard did was wrong. But what Bouchard and the baby’s mother did in choosing not to abort, especially given the circumstances, will earn them both a special smile from the Almighty. He’s the kind of man I want to see in Congress.

Your American conservatism, everyone <3

[worstblogever]

May 22nd, 2021: The day Rick Santorum gets fired from CNN and that night, Lil Nas X performs on live TV with dancers in half-assedless pleather pants before splitting the crotch of his own and finishing the last 90 seconds of his performance of Montero with his hands clasped over his junk so it isn't seen by a nationwide audience.

Pride Month '21 starts early, and could not possibly be going better.

[Tendrin]

May 22nd, 2021: The day Rick Santorum gets fired from CNN and that night, Lil Nas X performs on live TV with dancers in half-assedless pleather pants before splitting the crotch of his own and finishing the last 90 seconds of his performance of Montero with his hands clasped over his junk so it isn't seen by a nationwide audience.

Pride Month '21 starts early, and could not possibly be going better.

Oh my god bwahahahahahahhahahahhaha

[WestPhillyPunisher]

New COVID-19 Cases Plummet To Lowest Levels Since Last June

As cases, hospitalizations and deaths steadily dropped this week, pre-pandemic life in America has largely resumed. Good news indeed!

**********

Ex-Bush Aide Gives Chilling Reality Check About Continued GOP Capitulation To Trump

Peter Wehner pointed out where “things really get dangerous” with Republican repetition of the ex-president’s election lies. It's like I've said numerous times here, the GQP has no choice, they need the support of Trump's base, so they have to continue spouting the "Big Lie" to keep Dolt45 happy so his lemmings will vote for party scumbags.

**********

Matt Gaetz’s Ex-Girlfriend Reportedly Agrees To Cooperate With Sex Trafficking Investigators

News follows a plea deal by Joel Greenberg, a friend of the Republican lawmaker, in exchange for testimony against “other men” involved in a sex ring. Yeah, I can see a smarmy bastard like Matty Perv being mixed up in that horror.

**********

Ivanka Trump In A Fog In Deposition About Role Of Investigated Top Trump Executive

After working for years in the Trump Organization, she apparently couldn’t recall Allen Weisselberg has been the company’s chief financial officer for decades. In a fog? Suuuuuuuuuure! Like I believe that. While Ivanka's a blonde, she's in no way a DUMB blonde.

**********

Biden To Host Family Of George Floyd On 1-Year Anniversary Of His Death

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is still working on a version of a policing overhaul bill that could pass the Senate. I hope that bill is passed because that sort of reform is BADLY needed.

**********

‘Kremlin Cruz’ Erupts Over Nickname By Brian Williams For Attack On ‘Emasculated’ Military

“Cancun Cruz” gets a new nickname after the Texas senator’s “latest and remarkably stupid lapse in judgment” on American troops, Williams noted. I've been calling him FLED Cruz, but his new moniker works for me!

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire, who we noted for his reaching office in 2012 by winning a GOP primary in a conservative-leaning district by a mere 40 votes, and since, his utter dedication to mendacity regarding discussions of healthcare. Gardenhire, after voting to block the Medicaid Expansion in Tennessee, lied and said he wasn't being a hypocrite because he wasn't on government insurance himself (he was). He also lied about the Affordable Care Act, claiming it hadn't also, by extension, allowed him to keep his son covered through his own government medical insurance until he was 27 (it did). When confronted on camera by a constituent who demanded he pull himself from his own insurance plans if he was going to deny coverage to a quarter million Tennesseeans, Todd Gardenhire's reasonable response was, "Why don't you give it up, asshole?" But back to the lying... Gardenhire falsely claimed in a hearing on abortion that there were more restrictions on men seeking vasectomies these days than women seeking abortions (WHAT?). Gardenhire also voted for Tennessee's attempts to bring back the electric chair, because they're having a hard time getting phenobarbital to perform lethal injections. He has voted to try and block Tennessee from resettling Syrian refugees. Gardenhire called those who wrote protests on the sidewalk outside his office in chalk “Nazis”, which seems pretty hyperbolic given that we’re pretty sure that actual Nazis used far more heinous tactics. Oh, and in 2017 he became the sponsor of an honest-to-goodness “Blue Lives Matter” bill in the Tennessee state legislature.

Gardenhire, now 73 won re-election in a race that was closer than expected, with 53% of the vote in November. That may have had something to do with the racist comments he made in October of 2020, where he blamed “inner city” obesity on people “eating fried chicken from 7-11”:

”The obesity rate in the inner city is bigger than anywhere else. Because ... they go to a 7-Eleven or a convenience store, there's fried chicken so they get them some fried chicken on the way home and have dinner on that. Well, that's the worst thing you can eat.”

Since winning re-election, Gardenhire has been counterproductive in the United States recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, voting for a bill to prohibit the use of Covid-19 vaccination passports, and voted for both of the Tennessee GOP’s transphobic bills, to both ban transgender athletes from playing against their biological sex, and should there be events where it’s irrelevant, banning transgender student athletes from locker rooms.

Todd Gardenhire will, barring a resignation of untimely death, remain in office until 2024.

[Tami]

What is going on in Arizona is designed to suppress the vote....only....wouldn't the only votes being suppressed are Republican votes?

Even voter suppression laws can't stop everyone from voting, they can only make it harder. We've seen already that Democrats relish a challenge. I doubt these laws will keep serious Democrats and Independents from voting.

Aren't the Republicans shooting themselves in the foot?

[worstblogever]

What is going on in Arizona is designed to suppress the vote....only....wouldn't the only votes being suppressed are Republican votes?

Even voter suppression laws can't stop everyone from voting, they can only make it harder. We've seen already that Democrats relish a challenge. I doubt these laws will keep serious Democrats and Independents from voting.

Aren't the Republicans shooting themselves in the foot?

Elderly voters tend to vote by mail in Arizona, so trying to purge voter rolls of absentee voters who "haven't voted in 4 years or more" is going to hit those folks first. The older retirees in places like Sun City.

After the Census was not just botched, but botched in a way that may have screwed Republicans out of House seats that could have helped them take it back in 2022, I'm starting to consider the possibility that Trump's curse upon them will to to increase the stupidity so they shift from a neutral-evil party to a chaotic evil one. Like, they're just panicked about their inevitable demise, and they're potentially doing s*** that might only accelerate it to happen sooner while they flail about in desperation.

We all know they only want to count their own votes, they're saying that part out loud now (which could really f*** them in court rulings), but they are starting to take actions that might not just suppress the vote for the communities they've targeted for decades, but their own base, as well.

YOU HATE TO SEE IT.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

After the Census was not just botched, but botched in a way that may have screwed Republicans out of House seats that could have helped them take it back in 2022,

Can you explain this further? I have heard all kinds of vague stuff about "who won the Census?" and my take was that it wasn't bonanza as 2010 was (which I knew going in would be the case). Would like to know more.

My personal feeling though is not to get complacent and underestimate the hatred of GOP. The GOP have a great imagination for cheating and dirty tricks. It will take three consecutive defeats (to start with) to finish this strain of conservatism electorally.

A lot's at stake in 2022. If the GOP get the house, they will impeach Biden several times as payback for Trump getting impeached twice. That much is guaranteed. It wouldn't be for any charge or anything. They'll do it just to be petty.

[Tami]

Arizona Democrats pass resolution urging Sinema, Kelly to junk filibuster

Arizona Democrats called on Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly to help eliminate a controversial procedural hurdle that allows Senate Republicans to block key legislation.

At its state convention on Saturday, where hundreds of Democratic foot soldiers gathered virtually, the Arizona Democratic Party also seized on the spectacle of the Republican-led review of 2.1 million ballots from the 2020 election.

Local and national party leaders condemned the review as a desperate and extreme attempt to defy the will of voters and upend democracy, using it as a rallying cry to organize ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, where they hope to hold onto a U.S. Senate seat and make gains statewide and at the GOP-controlled state Capitol.

[Tami]

County tells Arizona Senate to keep files, threatens lawsuit over deleted election data claim

Maricopa County officials on Friday directed the Arizona Senate and the auditors it hired to review the county's 2020 election count to preserve documents for a possible lawsuit.

The county made the demand in a letter after the auditors refused to back down from their claim that the county destroyed evidence by deleting an election database. The GOP-controlled Board of Supervisors and Republican Recorder Stephen Richer, one of the top election officials, say the claim is false.

County officials earlier this week said they might consider filing a defamation lawsuit if the Senate President Karen Fann and the auditors don't retract the allegation files were deleted.

“Because of the wrongful accusations that the County destroyed evidence, the County or its elected officers may now be subject to, or have, legal claims,” the county's chief litigation attorney, Tom Liddy, wrote in a letter to Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican from Prescott.