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

[CaptainEurope]

This story did not get the media attention it should have. It is a good thing that this idiot had a moment of clarity and turned himself in.

It got more than this, from February 2021:

Federal judge whose son was killed in attack says gunman targeted Sonia Sotomayor

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin, who in 2004, as accused of attempting a voter registration scheme in Jacksonville, Florida, and then after laying low for a few years, was one of the beneficiaries of the Bush Administration’s culling of U.S. Attorneys. After it was revealed that his predecessor was fired on Karl Rove’s orders to make a job opening for Griffin, he resigned six months into the job, citing “spending time with his family” for bailing. He resurfaced in 2010 to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District, and won in spite of being named one of CREW’s “Most Crooked Candidates of 2010”. His most noteworthy moment in office came in October of 2013, when during a point when the capitol was on lockdown after a woman ran a barricade at the White House and began a high speed chase that ended with her being fired upon by the Secret Service, Griffin, while hiding in his office, took to social media to blame the event on President Obama’s “violent rhetoric” while the situation was still active, and before any details were known. Halfway through his second term in office, Griffin again resigned to “spend time with his family”, only to turn around and six months later register as a candidate for Arkansas Lieutenant Governor, making people wonder if his family tell him to go away after a couple months of him bothering them. He currently is serving as lieutenant governor while bizarrely cashing in big by working for a consulting firm through an obscure legal loophole, as well. In May of 2016. He, along with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge all surfaced around the same time to respond to President Obama’s directive about transgendered bathroom use, with Griffin himself taking to social media to call it “misguided”.

Over the past few years, Griffin has been remain content with sitting in Arkansas, giving a thumbs up’ to the spree of executions that Gov. Asa Hutchinson went on in April 2017, while also hiring a guy who worked for the Koch brothers on a SuperPAC to serve as his own deputy chief of staff and communications director, because that’s not shady at all.

In any event, Tim Griffin won re-election in 2018, and was last seen lying to children about Covid-19 as Arkansas Republicans chose to ignore the warnings of public health experts and reopened the state without any concern for how that would spread the virus exponentially faster and cause many more fatalities.

We’ve been expecting Griffin to run for Governor at the end of the current term of Asa Hutchinson when he was term-limited… but alas, Griffin looked down the pike and saw that such a bid would mean he would have to win a primary featuring the far higher-profile candidate and nepotism choice of the people, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in a Primary, and thus, Tim Griffin blinked, and decided to just run for Arkansas Attorney General instead, and bide his time presumably for another four to eight years.
 

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Sure. Who said they should be assassinated. But why do they have to pass a law. Doesn't law enforcement already protect them? Isn't it already a crime to threaten them? This is the GOP trying to make the left terrorist to deflect from most terrorist in this country are on the Right.
Sotomayor was threatened, where was Mitch then.

Nowhere to be found, of course. Mitch only takes action when Justices he put on the bench are threatened. The left leaners on SCOTUS are on their own.

[Mister Mets]

It got more than this, from February 2021:

Federal judge whose son was killed in attack says gunman targeted Sonia Sotomayor

That one led to a significant Judicial Security bill.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...ck-2021-12-02/

[CaptainEurope]

That one led to a significant Judicial Security bill.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...ck-2021-12-02/

It's interesting that they did not feel this was enough to protect Kavanaugh:

The legislation establishes guidelines for federal agencies, state and local governments, and commercial data collectors to create safeguards to protect the personal information of active, senior, recalled, or retired federal judges and their immediate families by:

Prohibiting government agencies from publicly posting judges’ personally identifiable information and allowing judges to request the removal of their information within 72 hours if it is already posted;
Creating a federal grant program for state and local governments to help cover costs to prevent the release of judges’ personally identifiable information from any agency that operates a database or registry that contains this information;
Authorizing funding for state and local governments to create or expand programs to protect judges’ personally identifiable information, such as programs to redact information from tax, property, and state motor vehicle records, among others, or the hiring of a third party to scrub the information from the internet;
Prohibiting commercial data collectors from selling, trading, licensing, purchasing, or providing judges’ personally identifiable information, and authorizing the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) to provide data brokers with a current list of federal judges and their immediate family members for the purpose of compliance and;
Allowing injunctive relief and a private right-of-action for violations of the law.

The bill would also authorize funding for the AO and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) to monitor and assess online threats, maintain records, investigate complaints, and address acts of aggression and violations. It would also allow the USMS to hire additional intelligence analysts, deputy U.S. Marshals, and other personnel to ensure the agency is able to anticipate and deter threats against federal judges.

[Mister Mets]

It's interesting that they did not feel this was enough to protect Kavanaugh:

In this case, McConnell was calling on the House to pass a bill that unanimously passed the Senate "that would provide Supreme Court members and their immediate relatives with security protection that is already granted to members of the federal government."

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/pol...262299062.html

McConnell decided that people protesting outside houses of Supreme Court justices was a major problem requiring a legal solution.

[Tami]

Channel surfing caused I couldn't get back to sleep when I saw on CBS news that birth control pills for men is going to be coming real soon.

Don't know what it will mean, but I am curious to find out.

[worstblogever]

Channel surfing caused I couldn't get back to sleep when I saw on CBS news that birth control pills for men is going to be coming real soon.

Don't know what it will mean, but I am curious to find out.

It means Christian Evangelical men are going to be even more furious about birth control and try even harder to get it banned.

And they'll talk about the importance of their bodily autonomy in NOT wanting to take anything that'll make their sperm lazy and ineffective.

[Tami]

It means Christian Evangelical men are going to be even more furious about birth control and try even harder to get it banned.

And they'll talk about the importance of their bodily autonomy in NOT wanting to take anything that'll make their sperm lazy and ineffective.

I bet there is going to be a big hullabaloo over the legal issues surrounding the possibility of forcing men convicted of sex crimes to take the pill.

The issues surrounding banning abortion in all cases, including rape and incest, especially when the victim is under-aged, is going to be countered by those who will insist on mandating this for the men involved.

[babyblob]

Channel surfing caused I couldn't get back to sleep when I saw on CBS news that birth control pills for men is going to be coming real soon.

Don't know what it will mean, but I am curious to find out.

I think this is a great thing and I want to see more on how it works. It would help put the responsibility on men for stopping unwanted pregnancies as opposed to just blaming the woman.

There will be people who get upset at this.

I have had a Vasectomy years ago. But man did I have to jump through hoops to get it. I guess because of my ag at the time. But it strikes me as odd people complain about too many kids and people being bad parents but then do everything they can to make sure people have kids.

[worstblogever]

I bet there is going to be a big hullabaloo over the legal issues surrounding the possibility of forcing men convicted of sex crimes to take the pill.

We have people like Alex Jones screaming about "chemicals turning all the frogs gay" and Tucker Carlson airing a documentary espousing the benefits of using UV light to tan one's testicles.

I think there's a pretty predictable freakout coming from psychological vulnerable and easily threatened men on the right.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

Tlaib's problem is that part of her grift was voting against infrastructure when her constituents needed it most. She voted against child care and green energy. She should have known she would be primaried at that point

Let's be honest here, they want her gone regardless. They just have a plausible deniability excuse to go after her now. And the using of rightwing money is still fukin yikes no matter how you try to justify it.

[CSTowle]

Sure. Who said they should be assassinated. But why do they have to pass a law. Doesn't law enforcement already protect them? Isn't it already a crime to threaten them? This is the GOP trying to make the left terrorist to deflect from most terrorist in this country are on the Right.
Sotomayor was threatened, where was Mitch then.

Who said they should be assassinated? To my knowledge, nobody here. Why ask the question then? Do we need more laws to protect Supreme Justices? I don't know, but I think it's worth discussing and debating given the intense partisanship and recent events like January 6th making something like the scenario I described more likely to happen than it would have been 10/20 years ago. Sounds like right-wing deflection from talk on further firearms regulations, "why don't you enforce the laws we already have?" Maybe that's enough, but maybe not. Worth discussing.

As to politics, I'm sure it is partially motivated by politics. Everything is, to a politician. I take that as being baked-in to the process, and ask instead, "Is this a good idea?" Seems to me like it might be. You (and many others) may disagree. We increased the security budget for Congress after January 6th, but I'd say it's worth discussing if throwing more money at the problem is enough and if we're vulnerable to a similar attack in the future. Maybe more needs to be done. As to Mitch not caring until it impacts his party, if it gets him to do something worthwhile I don't care if it's for selfish reasons. If the outcome is a good one I say let him work towards it. Stopped clocks yada yada.

[CaptainEurope]

Let's be honest here, they want her gone regardless. They just have a plausible deniability excuse to go after her now. And the using of rightwing money is still fukin yikes no matter how you try to justify it.

Why would they have gone after her regardless? Because she booed Hillary Clinton?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It means Christian Evangelical men are going to be even more furious about birth control and try even harder to get it banned.

And they'll talk about the importance of their bodily autonomy in NOT wanting to take anything that'll make their sperm lazy and ineffective.

And will probably be discussed ad nauseum on Faux News starting in just about 15 minutes from now after today’s installment of the 1/6 hearings begin everywhere else.