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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He was also confident this won't come to pass, after he was confident Roe would never be taken down. I'm certain that he's also confident that no one in Florida will be sentenced to death over wearing the wrong set of clothing in public.

In Roe decision, Justice Clarence Thomas invites new legal challenges to contraception and same-sex marriage rights

It was a given this Court would turn its eyes towards overturning same sex marriage after killing Roe v. Wade. Anyone who thinks the Civil Rights Act isn’t next in the queue, you’re kidding yourselves.

[Kirby101]

Email Suggests That Supreme Court Justice Thomas Had Been in Regular Contact with Florida Gov. DeSantis

From last year. If you are Republican, there is no accountability.

[kidfresh512]

McCurtain County community, Idabel mayor demand resignations of county officials

IDABEL, Okla. — Residents in McCurtain County are outraged after a newspaper article revealed racist comments and threats of murder involving county officials.

The McCurtain Gazette newspaper published an audio recording they obtainedwhere the group is heard discussing a plot to kill the publisher and his son, as well as making racist comments condoning lynching and derogatory remarks about a woman who recently died in a house fire.

A large crowd gathered outside the McCurtain County Commissioners' office during their weekly meeting Monday. Many residents are echoing Governor Kevin Stitt’s resignation calls for Sheriff Kevin Clardy, MCSO Captain Alicia Manning, Larry Hendrix (jail administrator) and County Commissioner Mark Jennings. All were absent from today's meeting.

“You know the saying about your hand getting caught in the cookie jar? They got caught,” said Glenda Austin, a lifelong resident.

The Oklahoma Attorney General confirms his office is investigating the situation.

The publisher of the McCurtain Gazette, Bruce Willingham, and reporter, Bruce’s son Chris, told me they have been advised to temporarily leave town.

Chris Willingman has written at least 30 articles alleging corruption involving the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office over the last few years.

The McCurtain County County Sheriff's Office released this statement on Monday evening on Facebook:

The last 72 hours have been amongst the most difficult and disruptive in recent memory. This is a very complex situation and one we regret having to address.

There is and has been an ongoing investigation into multiple, significant violation of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act, Title 13, Chapters 176.3 and 176.4 which states that it is illegal to secretly record a conversation in which you are not involved and do not have the consent of at least one of the involved parties. There is a significant number of victims of this criminal activity and it has taken significant effort and time to identify them and corroborate evidence.

Many of these recordings, like the one published by media outlets on Friday, have yet to be duly authenticated or validated. Our preliminary information indicates that the media released audio recording has, in fact, been altered. The motivation for doing so remains unclear at this point. That matter is actively being investigated.

In addition to being illegally obtained, the audio does not match the “transcription” of that audio, and is not precisely consistent with what has been put into print.

Multiple agencies are assisting in this ongoing investigation.

As a result of the press release that went out on Friday, a large number of threats of violence including death threats have been made against county employees and officials, their families and friends.

There will be continued press releases from this agency as the investigation comes to a close and findings are forwarded to the appropriate authorities for felony charges to be filed on those involved.

Sounds like they will try to go with the recordings were illegally obtained and blame media printing excerpts. Like there is some nuance lost in their conversations and ruminations of lynching.

Meanwhile the poor publisher and his son of the town paper advised to leave town. Good lord what kind of backwards hole. This is like the Klan threatening to burn a cross on their yard for outing them or something.

[Kirby101]

At least they weren't protesting gun violence with a bull horn.

[JCAll]

Looks like there won't be a trial for the Dominion thing. I know a lot of people will be disappointed by that.

[babyblob]

Looks like there won't be a trial for the Dominion thing. I know a lot of people will be disappointed by that.

I am sure fox news really wanted to settle.

It was either that or risk having tucker and company lie on the stand or tell the truth and prove what pieces of shit and full of garbage they are.

[Dalak]

Looks like there won't be a trial for the Dominion thing. I know a lot of people will be disappointed by that.

I certainly am, but sadly I've grown used to feeling disappointment with reality.

[AnakinFlair]

Well, there's always the Smartmatic lawsuit.

[useridgoeshere]

At the end of the day, Dominion is a business, so turning down nearly $800 million wouldn't make sense, especially when we know judges often reduce jury awards and the courts won't be on their side.

However, we all wanted to see the spectacle of Fox's biggest stars and leadership admitting they lied to their viewers under oath. I'm sad that won't happen.

[worstblogever]

The settlement may include Fox hosts being forced to admit they lied on air, so there's that.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” had a profile of Kim Lehman, a former Republican National Committee member who in 2010, called for Americans to rise up in armed revolt as courts began to uphold same sex marriages. She would later also start ranting on social media about how President Obama was secretly Muslim, and when Politico reported her claims, and debunked them, she accused the media of participating in a cover up of Obama’s true faith and allegiances. The Republican Party then tried forcing her to resign prior to their 2012 National Convention, but she refused, sticking around to help write the party platform, and then bragging to the media about how she personally had made sure it included mentions of the dreaded Agenda 21, thus confirming she was a nutty conspiracy theorist, in case there was still any doubt that she deserved to be shown the door.

In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” presented its original profile of the U.S. House Representative from Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, Tom Marino. During the Bush administration back in 2007, Marino was elevated to be the U.S. Attorney in Pennsylvania’s Middle District, but he resigned while under investigation for ethics violations. After that, Marino spent three years working as a six-figure lawyer at a private practice, and then like many of the chuckleheads that we’ve covered at FRED he was elected in 2010, in the Tea Party Wave. Maybe someone should have paid attention to the fact that Tom Marino’s as dumb as a post when it comes to a great many things. For starters, geography. You see, back in his first 90 days in office, Marino decided to criticize the Obama administration’s strategy in Libya, asking, “Is there a plan? Is the mission to take Gadhafi out? Where does it stop? Do we go into Africa next? " which indicates he’s not aware that Libya is actually in Africa. What made that statement even more sad for our country was that Marino was placed by Republican House leadership on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is a great place for a guy who doesn’t know where the foreign countries actually are. Where Tom Marino really stands out, however, is how much he loved, LOVED to talk about impeachment. However, he doesn’t seem to understand how that works, or who it is that can be impeached. The first instance where he did so was back in February of 2013, when he was talking about impeaching Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for… reasons. (Where he’s a bit off…Senators don’t get impeached. They can be expelled, however, by a 2/3 majority vote.) A few months later, in July 2013, after President Obama announced he wanted to delay the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (which supposedly the GOP wanted so they could try to repeal it before it took effect), Marino again seemed to stumble with the concept of how impeachment worked, talking about indicting Obama for his decision, comparing it to Watergate. (Again, Rep. Marino is not just a lawyer, but a former U.S. Attorney, albeit a Bush administration appointee, who doesn’t seem to know that that’s in no way a crime, let alone an impeachable offense.) Marino called for the impeachment of both President Obama AND Attorney General Eric Holder in February of 2015, insisting that HE wasn’t talking about impeachment, he just kept hearing questions about it at town halls. He then proceeded to talk about how both men were “approaching impeachment” because they were not “enforcing the laws”. He gave no specific laws, that he would have a case for impeachment hearings, of course. Mind you, Marino imagined a lot of wrongdoing by Obama and Holder, though, to be sure, like when in January of 2015, when he accused them of using the Justice Department to illegally fund “activist groups”. And he of course, provided no evidence of that.

But, in our introduction to Tom Marino, we are proud to include his most partisan and cowardly moment in his three terms in office, from August of 2014. Republicans were in lockstep, campaigning hard on two issues in the mid-term elections… fears about Ebola Virus, and of course, anti-immigrant sentiment. And as debate in the House over immigration reform and how to help migrant children from South America being detained was ongoing, Tom Marino took to the House floor, and laid the blame solely on… Nancy Pelosi? It seems that in the warped mind of Marino, it was not Republicans in the House and Senate voting against immigration reform at every opportunity who were responsible for the DREAM Act not passing, nor was it House Speaker John Boehner blocking later versions of the bill from coming up for a vote for almost two years. By not getting her entire caucus to work together to pass EVERYTHING they wanted, including that legislation, she was at fault. Well, unfortunately for Rep. Marino… Nancy Pelosi was in the room, and she went right after him for invoking her name in such a manner, yelling at him and calling him a liar, as he retreated from her up the aisle like a coward. After the incident, Pelosi’s aides reported she received an apology, Marino of course denied it, and said Pelosi is “a prime example of why we need term limits”.

When last we left Rep. Tom Marino, he was sucking up to the Trump administration, hoping for an appointment to be the drug czar for it, and combat the opioid crisis. There’s just one problem with that… he withdrew his name from the running in shame after an investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes” detailed his years-long efforts to pass a law that critics say allowed the drug industry to profit off people addicted to opioids. Can you believe that? Donald Trump wanted to nominate someone to a post who was revealed to have a financial interest in not just failing to do the job, but a track record of profiting by working against the mission statement of that position? THE HELL YOU SAY. (Also, the latest ethical lapse from Marino). instead, Tom Marino ran for a fifth term in Congress in 2018. He won the election with 66% of the vote, mostly because of the partisan lean gave a +11 Republican advantage. However, about two and a half weeks into that session of Congress, he resigned immediately.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Hardy Billington, a member of the Missouri House of Representatives first elected in 2018, after an initial failed campaign for office in the Tea Party Wave of 2010. This was of concern to many because of Billington’s rabidly homophobic views, including his belief that “homosexuality is more dangerous to a person’s health than smoking”. That was the most striking of many statements in a 2012 newspaper ad that Billington took out, where he advised “tough love” to be used against the gay community, writing, "We are encouraging and affirming individuals into the 'gay' lifestyle. If you truly love someone, you would steer them away from self-destructive behaviors, shouldn't you? Homosexuals need our tough love, not blind love. It continued that there was "study after study" that showed a pattern where being gay cuts life expectancy by nearly three decades. The newspaper noted alongside the ad that Billington and other politicians had tied "outdated" HIV studies to the cancer risks of smoking in order to show the "gay lifestyle" was more dangerous for one's health, and it was bunk. Billington of course, also wrote a book in 2004 where he raged against the concept of same-sex marriage, including a passage where he called gays “Sodomites”, and that their “sins are much worse than other sins” because ”they cannot reproduce and thus must recruit”.

Billington has publicly feuded with Democratic legislator Greg Razer, who is openly gay, as he continues to push for “religious freedom” legislation that in effect, is just theocratic nonsense, and also unsurprisingly has voted to ban abortion if/when Roe v. Wade is overturned in Missouri.

Hardy Billington represents District 152 of the Missouri House of Representatives, it leans highly conservative, and Missouri Republicans were content to let this bigoted twit run for office unopposed in 2020. Billington has used his place in the legislature to try and do some good in 2020 for the people of Missouri during a pandemi- JUST KIDDING, he filed a bill to declare honor fellow homophobe Rush Limbaugh with his own holiday in Missouri. Of course, in 2021 he’s changed his tune and wanted to help people and focus on real problems like- JUST KIDDING AGAIN, he filed legislation to avoid having any mention being made in schools of the New York Times’ 1619 project, because he wants to whitewash American history and pretend slavery was never a thing.

Billington won re-election in 2022 by getting to run unopposed. Again, he’ll probably be around until at least 2026. Another three years of this wanker… oy.

[ed2962]

The settlement may include Fox hosts being forced to admit they lied on air, so there's that.

This is what I'm hoping for. It probably won't make a difference to their hardcore audience but still...

[AnakinFlair]

The settlement may include Fox hosts being forced to admit they lied on air, so there's that.

I just saw their statement on the settlement. It included the phrases 'some remarks made about Dominion' and 'continued journalistic excellence'. So yeah, they learned nothing.

I also disagree the judge would have reduced any amount awarded and the courts wouldn't be on their side. Just look at Alex Jones.

[Godzilla2099]

The settlement may include Fox hosts being forced to admit they lied on air, so there's that.

Even if Fox said, "We lied to take your money," it would make zero difference. Something similar already happened:

From Sidney Powell's lawyers, in her defense against a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems:

- "Powell's attorneys have said in a court filing that no reasonable person would have believed her allegations as fact and therefore she can't have defamed Dominion. This approach was successfully argued by lawyers representing Fox News in a 2020 defamation case."

Whether you like Trump or not, he chose his base correctly. That cult has very selective hearing.