All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[CaptainEurope]

Matt Gaetz subpoenaed by woman he's been accused of having sex with when she was a minor

The subpoena demands Gaetz sit for a deposition to discuss allegations stemming from a years-long Justice Department investigation into allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, who is now in her 20s, according to the report.

Lobbyist Chris Dorworth, a friend of Gaetz's, filed the defamation and racketeering lawsuit against the young woman, but the subpoena comes from her attorneys, the report notes.

[Deathstroke]

Republicans are gross.

Because there are no gay or trans people with an interest in space exploration after all.

[Deathstroke]

Matt Gaetz subpoenaed by woman he's been accused of having sex with when she was a minor

He'll refuse to answer the subpoena, just watch.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He'll refuse to answer the subpoena, just watch.

Bingo! As is always the case with Qpublicans, it's "Rules for thee, not for me".

[Mister Mets]

I honestly don't see how DeSantis sees this as a win! Is it that teachers won't be able to indoctrinate children and teach them how to be gay under the settlement (something that was never actually the case)?

It fits the explanations about the law was.

There's an argument that the law was vague in order to chill speech, so that legislators can claim it didn't go far but districts were nervous about potentially expensive time-consuming legal fights, but that would always be short lived.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...btq-rcna143298



I jumped to conclusions too fast on this (Mets was right to say we should wait for the medical report).

That being said, the bullying this young individual faced was just unfortunate.

May they RIP.

Mets is often right.

In fairness, I don't think you said anything outrageous or premature.

“This school district has failed him”: Trans Katy teen drops out after gender policy passes


Reading this at work I had to stop and finish reading it later I cant get all upset at the bullying described right now. But I read enough to see that at least Kadence had a very supportive and loving father to be there, and love and protect. Which is amazing because it is when the families and close friends are also hostile, where you see the hopeless spiral that could lead to suicides etc.

I just don't see how anyone can think that they have the right to go out of their way to demonize people and tacitly sanction this type of bullying as a formal policy. They can say whatever they like about "protecting the kids". But, how is making a child THIS upset and forced to just drop out helping the children?

Another complication here is a push against discipline in schools.

When there are all these discussions about the suspension to prison pipeline, it's hard for districts to implement penalties against rules violations.

I was driving behind someone the other day who had a sticker in their rear window that said "God is Pro-Life". I wanted to ask that driver "Do you know how many millions of people are killed every year due to natural disasters? Or how about Noah? Or Sodom and Gomorrah? You still think God is pro-life?"

Part of it is magical thinking. Another view is that it's not up to determine God's plan.

From what I remember, Old Testament rules are that the soul enters the body with the first breath - so life, under that tradition, doesn't start until birth. I could be confusing what little I know of Jewish tradition with the Old Testament though, they are similar but not the same.

I don't think they put that much thought into this.

I was reading about the Trump family taking over the RNC. With Donald placing another person who shouldn't have a job over a position with his daughter Lara in charge.

So... we all kinda know he's gonna f-ck the rest of those candidates and try to take all the money right ? I mean we all know you don't fire 60 people and place a family member in charge if the plans aren't to literally take what you want.

Minor correction- Lara Trump is his Daughter in Law.

One argument I've heard from a Trump-sketpical right-leaning podcast (I think Jonah Goldberg's The Remnant) is that this is not necessarily good news for Democrats.

Lara Trump is politically ambitious. She wanted to run for Senate in 2022, and this is a way to raise her profile. It won't work very well if all the petty cash goes missing. Of course, it's also possible that she just wanted to run for Senate to access campaign funds and enrich herself.

By all accounts, Michael Whatley is a serious guy. He wants to win, and knows how to use levers of power. He was part of Bush's recount team, chair of an important state party (North Carolina is seen as a potential swing state; Democrats haven't done very well there) and the general counsel to the RNC.

[kidfresh512]

Fulton County DA Fani Willis case against Trump can continue if she or special prosecutor Wade remove themselves, judge rules

ATLANTA — A Georgia judge ruled Friday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should not be disqualified from prosecuting the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and several co-defendants — with one major condition.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee found the "appearance of impropriety" brought about by Willis' romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade should result in either Willis and her office leaving the case — or just Wade, who she'd appointed to head the case.

The choice is likely to be an easy one: If Willis were to remove herself, the case would come to a halt, but having Wade leave will ensure the case continues without further delay.

The judge also found there was no "actual conflict" brought about by the relationship, a finding that would have required Willis to be disqualified. "Without sufficient evidence that the District Attorney acquired a personal stake in the prosecution, or that her financial arrangements had any impact on the case, the Defendants’ claims of an actual conflict must be denied," the judge wrote.

Inevitable. They had absolutely nothing. It was just a delay and smear campaign. Now Jim Jordan will continue to threaten Fani with the Congressional subpoena and contempt of Congress for the same bs.

[achilles]

I suppose it was inevitable.

[kidfresh512]

Pornhub suspends site in Texas due to state’s age-verification law

In the latest installment of the dispute between adult content websites and Texas lawmakers, Pornhub suspended service to Texans on Thursday arguing a state law infringes on adults’ rights to access protected speech.

Pornhub, one of the most visited websites in the world, sued Attorney General Ken Paxton last year to block enforcement of a 2023 state law that requires websites that host pornography to institute age-verification measures and display health warnings on its pages.

Pornhub disabled its website in Texas after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the age-verification requirement in a ruling last week that cited a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision preventing the sale of obscene materials to minors. But the question of regulating minors’ access to online material has already been well established, legal experts say, and it stands in sharp contrast to the most recent decision from the 5th Circuit.

The appeals court previously reversed an injunction of a U.S. District Court judge, which had blocked the law from going into effect in August. The 5th Circuit’s temporary stay required pornography websites to impose age-verification measures and display health warnings that said pornography is proven to harm brain development.

“We did all this. Everything that's been discussed here has already been discussed and resolved,” Eric Goldman, a professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law who specializes in internet law, told The Texas Tribune.

Goldman said the Supreme Court has already ruled on the regulation of online obscene materials in light of the Ginsberg case. He said the nation’s highest court determined that the internet is different from the offline world, and the two cannot be treated the same way.

He maintained Texas’ age-verification requirement is categorically unconstitutional because it forces all users to complete a mechanical process before accessing protected material, which can slow people down and act as a barrier to content. Goldman added it drags down the earning potential of publishers and adds costs to users who create content.

“The law hasn't changed in between the last round of battles and today,” Goldman said. “So they're gambling on the hope that a court might change. And to me, that's a very dicey way of making legislation because they’re basically saying, ‘We know it was [unconstitutional], we just don't care.’”

Using the 2023 law, Goldman said, Texas legislators are tempting the Supreme Court to “overturn its own precedent, which it has a recent history of doing.”

Texas is hoping that this new far right Supreme Court will just over rule the previous Supreme Court decisions with not even a new argument. Just change the ruling because their are more conservative judges.
This will be interesting how far will even GOP leaning voters who access porn even if secretly while pretending to be all holy etc be pushed before they change their voting habits? Obviously we here know there are plenty of ways to get your porn fix. But some of these major sites that are now deciding to cut their access to Texas or make any Texan user create accounts that they then might have to hide from the wife etc. get sick of the far right over reach?

[CaptainEurope]

I never quite understood how it's a conflict of interest when people on the same side of the case are fucking. Maybe I watched too many movies with hot District Attorneys.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

It fits the explanations about the law was.

There's an argument that the law was vague in order to chill speech, so that legislators can claim it didn't go far but districts were nervous about potentially expensive time-consuming legal fights, but that would always be short lived.

Mets is often right.

In fairness, I don't think you said anything outrageous or premature.

Another complication here is a push against discipline in schools.

When there are all these discussions about the suspension to prison pipeline, it's hard for districts to implement penalties against rules violations.

Part of it is magical thinking. Another view is that it's not up to determine God's plan.

I don't think they put that much thought into this.

Minor correction- Lara Trump is his Daughter in Law.

One argument I've heard from a Trump-sketpical right-leaning podcast (I think Jonah Goldberg's The Remnant) is that this is not necessarily good news for Democrats.

Lara Trump is politically ambitious. She wanted to run for Senate in 2022, and this is a way to raise her profile. It won't work very well if all the petty cash goes missing. Of course, it's also possible that she just wanted to run for Senate to access campaign funds and enrich herself.

By all accounts, Michael Whatley is a serious guy. He wants to win, and knows how to use levers of power. He was part of Bush's recount team, chair of an important state party (North Carolina is seen as a potential swing state; Democrats haven't done very well there) and the general counsel to the RNC.

It doesn't matter how serious politically these folks are. Once Trump DEMANDS the money , they will cave and hand over cash. He fired 60+ people in a day because he has his flunkies in place.

[kidfresh512]

I never quite understood how it's a conflict of interest when people on the same side of the case are fucking. Maybe I watched too many movies with hot District Attorneys.

No you are correct in your bafflement. It was stupid to even bring this issue to a hearing. You could tell by the time Fani got on the stand and completely owned the court that this was nonsense. They were stretching the limits of credulity to even suggest that she was somehow "profiting" from dinners he was buying her etc.

And I was even harder on her at the beginning thinking dammit you knew how important this case was and they would dig up anything relevant or not. But Wade was not even her first choice to try the case. That came out too. That should have highlighted she had no intention of whatever fraud or bs profiteering.

Had her first choices accepted then he wouldn't have been there in the first place.

[CaptainEurope]

Trump-backed Senate candidate faces GOP worries that he could be linked to gay adult website profile looking for sex partners

For Republicans eager to regain the Senate majority this year, Ohio offers a prime opportunity to pick up a critical seat.

But ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, there’s mounting anxiety inside the GOP that Bernie Moreno may emerge with the nomination. After vaulting into the top tier of contenders with a coveted endorsement from Donald Trump, Moreno — who has shifted from a public supporter of LGBTQ rights to a hardline opponent — is confronting questions about the existence of a 2008 profile seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex” on a casual sexual encounters website called Adult Friend Finder.

“Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling,” reads a caption on a photo-less profile under the username “nardo19672,” according to an Associated Press review of records made public through a massive and well-publicized data breach of the website. Records also show the profile was last accessed about six hours after it was created.

The AP review confirmed that someone with access to Moreno’s email account created the profile, though the AP could not definitively confirm whether it was created by Moreno himself. Questions about the profile have circulated in GOP circles for the past month. On Thursday evening, two days after the AP first asked Moreno’s campaign about the account, the candidate’s lawyer said a former intern created the account as a prank. The lawyer provided a statement from the intern, Dan Ricci, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.”

What's the over/under of the first of his dates contacting the press?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

No you are correct in your bafflement. It was stupid to even bring this issue to a hearing. You could tell by the time Fani got on the stand and completely owned the court that this was nonsense. They were stretching the limits of credulity to even suggest that she was somehow "profiting" from dinners he was buying her etc.

And I was even harder on her at the beginning thinking dammit you knew how important this case was and they would dig up anything relevant or not. But Wade was not even her first choice to try the case. That came out too. That should have highlighted she had no intention of whatever fraud or bs profiteering.

Had her first choices accepted then he wouldn't have been there in the first place.

Willis could've been cloistered like a nun when not in the courtroom and Trump's lawyers STILL would've pulled this stunt. They're on orders to delay the process by any means necessary, so they're going to keep on doing stupid sh*t like this. Hell, no doubt they've already got another scheme ready to go now that the Wade gambit fell flat.

[AnakinFlair]

Another complication here is a push against discipline in schools.

When there are all these discussions about the suspension to prison pipeline, it's hard for districts to implement penalties against rules violations.

I'm not sure I follow.

Admittedly, I've been out of school for nearly 30 years, and I don't have kids. So I don't know how schools operate today. But when I was in grade school, I got In School Suspension twice for fighting (didn't start it, but I ended it). In high school, I got an after school suspension for being late to a class (despite having a note from a teacher excusing my tardiness, as I was finishing up a time-sensitive project for her). And I know plenty of kids got in trouble for various reasons, and there was hardly every pushback from parents over that.

Our district did have a school where all of the really troubled teens got shipped off to, so that may have been a pipeline to prison. But that's just conjecture on my part.

[Mister Mets]

I never quite understood how it's a conflict of interest when people on the same side of the case are fucking. Maybe I watched too many movies with hot District Attorneys.

In this case, the prosecutor hired someone she was romantically involved with as a special counsel, even if he didn't have obvious experience in these topics.

So in addition to paying for her boyfriend out of the public purse, she also had a financial incentive to drag out the process, because the more complicated the case is, the more overtime her boyfriend gets (and this would be a bad incentive even if he never spent a penny on her.)

That's how it's a conflict of interest.

Don Lemon was supposed to have a new show coming out on X/Twitter. For the first show he interviewed Elon Musk. Musk didn't like teh questions asked so now the show has been cancelled before it's been aired.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...99e67ae5&ei=20

Mr "Free Speech Absolutist", everybody....

Man, Musk got played here.

This has helped Lemon's reputation.