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

[Tami]

Don't let Trump know about this

Voting fraud charges filed against Paterson councilman and councilman-elect

I really didn't think that anyone in my State would be this dumb.

n the wake of rampant allegations of voter fraud in the Paterson City Council race, the New Jersey Attorney General filed voting fraud charges Thursday against a city councilman and a council-elect.

Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced voting fraud charges against 1st Ward Councilman Michael Jackson, 3rd Ward Council-Elect Alex Mendez and two other men, weeks after the May 12 local election in which the Passaic County Board of Elections decided not to count 800 city ballots found scattered across different municipalities.

Both Jackson, 48, and Mendez, 45, were charged with fraud in casting mail-in votes, unauthorized possession of ballots, tampering with public records and falsifying or tampering with records, according to the statement. Mendez was additionally charged with election fraud and false registration or transfer.

Along with Jackson and Mendez, two Passaic County men, Shelim Khalique, 51, of Wayne, and Abu Razyen, 21, of Prospect Park, were also charged.

Much of the allegations stem from voters’ ability to designate a “bearer” of their ballot, who would presumably deliver the ballot for them. The bearer is legally required to sign the ballot before submitting it. According to the charges, all four men either approached and delivered vote-by-mail ballots from other people or processed the ballots, even though their names were not listed as the bearers.

According to the charges, Jackson allegedly approached at least one voter in the district where he was running and took their mail-in-ballots for delivery to the county board of elections. The ballots were then taken to the board of elections without anything identifying the bearer, according to the statement. Jackson allegedly had more than three official mail-in-ballots that were not his own or had him listed as an authorized bearer, the statement said.

The councilman also allegedly received one voter’s mail-in ballot unsealed, without any vote, the statement said. That ballot was also delivered to the board of elections, in a sealed envelope and without any listed bearer.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Anything's possible...

Their call.

But not yours I take it. Vote Republican to the end, right?

Don't let Trump know about this

Voting fraud charges filed against Paterson councilman and councilman-elect

I really didn't think that anyone in my State would be this dumb.

I guess this Michael Jackson wasn't exactly a smooth criminal. Heh!

Thank you. I'm here all week. Try the veal.

[numberthirty]

But not yours I take it. Vote Republican to the end, right?

Wrong...

Haven't voted for a single Republican yet. Can't really see a scenario where I would.

[Tami]

‘Black Lives Matter’ Will Be Painted on Street Outside Trump Tower

Mayor Bill de Blasio has ignited a new feud with President Trump by ordering the words “Black Lives Matter” to be painted in large yellow letters on the street outside of Trump Tower.

The words are expected to be painted in the coming week on Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, according to the city.

“The president is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City,” Julia Arredondo, a spokeswoman for Mr. de Blasio, said in a statement on Thursday. “He can’t run or deny the reality we are facing, and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded Black Lives Matter.”

In a tweet in response, Mr. Trump referenced Mr. de Blasio’s plan to paint “the fabled & beautiful Fifth Avenue, right in front of Trump Tower/Tiffany” and sought to play up animosity between the Black Lives Matter movement and the police in New York City.

[Tami]

[Tami]

The CDC Lost Control Of The Coronavirus Pandemic. Then The Agency Disappeared.

On January 17, the world’s most trusted public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced it was screening travelers from Wuhan, China, because of a new infectious respiratory illness striking that city.

It was the CDC’s first public briefing on the outbreak, coming as China reported 45 cases of the illness and two deaths linked to a seafood and meat market in Wuhan. Chinese health officials had not yet confirmed that the new illness was transmitted from person to person. But there was reason to believe that it might be: four days earlier, officials in Thailand confirmed their first case, a traveler from Wuhan who had not visited the seafood market.

“Based on the information that CDC has today, we believe the current risk from this virus to the general public is low,” said Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Messonnier, 54, was a veteran of the CDC’s renowned Epidemiological Intelligence Service, where she had risen through the ranks during the national responses to the anthrax attacks and the previous decade’s swine flu pandemic to eventually head the agency’s vaccines center.

Most of the novel coronavirus’s infections apparently went “from animals to people,” she explained, and human transmission was “limited.”

[Tami]

The Republican Choice: How a party spent decades making itself white.

Election Day 1981 was ugly in some largely Black and Hispanic districts of Trenton, New Jersey. Ominous signs hung outside several polling places:

WARNING

THIS AREA IS BEING PATROLLED BY THE
NATIONAL BALLOT
SECURITY TASK FORCE.

IT IS A CRIME TO FALSIFY A BALLOT OR
TO VIOLATE ELECTION LAWS.

That National Ballot Security Task Force was made up of county deputy sheriffs and local police who patrolled the polling sites with guns in full view. A court complaint later lodged by the Democratic Party described the members of the task force “harassing poll workers, stopping and questioning prospective voters … and forcibly restraining poll workers from assisting, as permitted by state law, voters to cast their ballots.”

The National Ballot Security Task Force was not some rogue enterprise, or an ill-conceived product of a few extremist thinkers. It was funded by the Republican Party.

While the group’s goals were ostensibly to prevent illegal voting, it was difficult to take that at face value — it looked a lot more like a coordinated intimidation effort. Republicans hadn’t been afraid to say publicly that they didn’t want certain people to vote, after all. Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in a speech in 1980: “I don’t want everybody to vote. … our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Good to know America is number in the world at something. URGH!

The Republican Choice: How a party spent decades making itself white.

If this keeps up, the Republican Party will go the way of dinosaurs, 8-track tapes and dial-up modems.

[The Cool Thatguy]

The Republican Choice: How a party spent decades making itself white.

Who knew that failing to evolve could have such a negative effect?

[Tami]

Facebook Looks to Contain Advertising Boycott Over Hate Speech

etwork tells advertisers it takes civil-rights groups’ concerns seriously, but won’t ‘make policy changes tied to revenue pressure’
A Facebook advertisement in Los Angeles. Company executives are vowing to invest more to tackle hate on the platform.


Facebook Inc. FB -2.97% is working to persuade its top advertisers not to pause spending on the social network, as it tries to keep a boycott from a handful of marketers from turning into a widespread revolt.

Facebook executives in emails and calls with advertisers and ad agencies over the past week have conveyed that they are taking seriously the concerns of civil-rights groups about the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation on its platform. But they are also maintaining that business interests won’t dictate their policies, according to people familiar with the discussions.

“We do not make policy changes tied to revenue pressure,” Carolyn Everson, vice president of Global Business Group at Facebook, said in an email to advertisers last weekend that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “We set our policies based on principles rather than business interests.”

Facebook executives are also vowing to invest more to tackle hate on the platform including continuing the development of artificial-intelligence technology that can detect hate speech, according to the email.

Several advertisers such as ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia Inc., VF Corp. VFC -1.20% ’s North Face, Eddie Bauer and Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) have said they would halt advertising on the platform. Their decisions came after a call from civil-rights groups including the Anti-Defamation League and NAACP last week to pull ad spending from Facebook for the month of July.

[Tami]

How The Fraternal Order Of Police Smeared A Civil Rights Lawyer

Debo Adegbile seemed like he’d make it through the Senate just fine. On Nov. 14, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated the 47-year-old lawyer to lead the civil rights division at the Department of Justice. No one questioned his qualifications: senior positions with the Senate Judiciary Committee and NAACP Legal Defense Fund, private practice, an expert in voting rights who twice defended the Voting Rights Act before the Supreme Court. And he had a reputation as a thoughtful lawyer, willing to listen to both sides.

Adegbile also had something else going for him. Democrats controlled the Senate, and they had just changed the rules so that presidential nominees needed only a majority of votes to be confirmed. In other words, it would be a lot easier for Obama’s picks to get through.

He should have been all set.

But in January 2014, the Fraternal Order of Police stepped in. The national law enforcement group made it its mission to take down Adegbile.

Adegbile and the team of lawyers did not argue that Abu-Jamal was innocent. It was a constitutional case, the basis of which was that Abu-Jamal should receive a new sentencing hearing because the judge’s instructions to the jury had been flawed. In 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit agreed. The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, declined to review the circuit court’s decision and let the opinion stand.

Adegbile, who declined to provide a comment for this piece, never issued anti-police or anti-FOP statements. All he did was argue that Abu-Jamal deserved his constitutional right to a fair trial. But that didn’t stop FOP and Philadelphia law enforcement officials from portraying him as a radical who defended an “unrepentant cop killer.”

The message was clear: If you ever go against police unions, you will pay the price.

[Gray Lensman]

How The Fraternal Order Of Police Smeared A Civil Rights Lawyer

It also highlights an additional trend I find disturbing - the smears against anyone who has been a defense lawyer. Apparently all defense lawyers ARE the worst things imagined about any of the people they defend. This has a two-fold effect. Limiting judges towards prosecutors, and undermining the right to a fair trial, since no ambitious lawyer will want to see their options limited by having been on defense.

John Adams weeps.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

How The Fraternal Order Of Police Smeared A Civil Rights Lawyer

A grim read on how the FOP savaged a good man's career on the flimsiest of pretenses. In some ways, the FOP could be seen as being only a step above the scum cops combat on the streets, what with their blatantly underhanded bully tactics, but now they've got their backs against the wall as cries from coast to coast are demanding reform of police in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, if not outright abolishment in some cities. Meanwhile, I'm genuinely surprised the FOP hasn't come out in full throated defense of Derek Chauvin, or perhaps he's too radioactive even for them to handle.

[kidfresh512]

Absolute clusterfuck in Texas. Bumbling gross negligence by Gov Abbot. We opened far too soon, and he hamstrung local leaders and judges trying to order wearing masks and social distancing the whole way.

How'd we get here? Gov. Abbott pauses Texas reopening plan as cases continue to soar

Gov. Abbott: Bars must close at noon today, restaurants to reduce to 50%, outdoor gatherings limited

We have medical experts and trained professionals that advised this would happen from the start. They warned along with local leaders we were opening too early. They tried to take it locally and at least mandate masks in public. Abbot undermined them publicly and directly saying those were not enforceable.

These morons making mask wearing political are complicit in public ignoring and not practicing social distancing. There is absolutely no excuse for this to be a political issue. Especially if we were going to open early anyway. Should have taken the basic preventative steps . Now we have to go backwards to curb the spike. Because too many people are not taking any of it seriously. There is too much mixed messaging and from Trump on down turning basic public safety into a political left vs right issue is absolutely inexcusable.

[Tami]

Trump can't come to NJ, can't go to his Bedminster Golf Club. If he tried to, he'd have to Quarantine himself for 14 days.