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Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

Well it seems like the special master wasn't falling for no banana in the tail pipe either...

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Can't attack the ruling, attack the person.

I believe in this instance they are attacking both. Because they are both full of sh*t.

Clearly. I mean, if I'd taken classified documents home, and then made the argument that it was okay because I was allowed to work with them at the office, I'd be without a clearance and quite likely in jail, especially given the quantity. If I'd exposed them to foreign agents, even in a possible way, I'd be enjoying a lifelong Colorado vacation at the government's expense.

The programs endangered by Trump's actions are likely hideously expensive, long-running and potentially linchpins of our capabilities. I shudder to think.

Well, and the only reason someone would want analysis of a country's nuclear capabilities is if I was planning to re-draw borders.
Perhaps for sabotage also...

Oh, no, there's a lot more to do with that. Nuclear capabilities are part of the dance of diplomacy.

Mike Lindell petitioned the court for a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from using his recently confiscated cellphone as well as to have it returned to him.

The judge (appointed by Trump) cited yesterday's appeals court ruling against Trump to deny Lindell's petition.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/mOf60wF.png)

‘I’m Done Saying I’m Sorry,’ Alex Jones Tells Sandy Hook Families in Court

Big day for self-incrimination as Jones took the stand in Sandy Hook case #2. It’s not mentioned in the article but my favorite part was when the plaintiff’s lawyer got Jones to accidentally admit that he cashed out nearly $9 million in crypto donations this year which he transferred to Infowars accounts, just months before Infowars declared bankruptcy.

Wait, he transferred funds to Infowars accounts before declaring Infowars bankruptcy? Wouldn't those funds be locked down and transferred his creditors?

He has like a dozen different shell companies in his and relative’s names that he shuffles money between in questionably legal ways. Infowars is technically “in debt” to one of these shell companies for tens of millions of dollars, thus the bankruptcy, nevermind that he’s basically just in debt to himself.

His bankruptcy hearing is also going poorly for him, the other day that judge ordered Jones’ lawyer and representative in the restructuring be thrown out for conflicts of interest and a DoJ trustee be put in charge of because none of Jones’ people can be trusted.

Alex Jones says that he has no money, but instead his parents have all the money. That is not working out well for him, as he is not a smart man or a legal genius. If you transfer a lot of money to your parents, that doesn't shelter said money for when you inevitably ask for it back.

Chickens, meet roost.

What a baby, Alex Jones is needing to finally apologize to all those he hurt and HE IS TIRED OF SAYING SORRY? Oh boy, you had no problem not saying sorry for 10 years. I think a few times isn't enough.

Jones was scheduled to be back on the stand today but instead gave a ranting press conference outside the courthouse about how he’s living in poverty* and the trial is rigged to completely destroy him, then skipped town back to Texas while his lawyer tried to cover for him inside. I guarantee that he’s going to spend all weekend giving “emergency reports” on his show about how the Judge is a pedo like he did the first trial, and this judge has been far less tolerant of his shenanigans than the first one was.

*living in poverty while owning multiple homes, taking in tens of thousands of dollars in supplement sales every day, and having received multiple anonymous gifts of millions in crypto in the last year, mind you

Jones' bankruptcy case is not going as he planned. Naturally the judge prepared for shenanigans from the start.

Judge Orders New Bankruptcy Officials in Alex Jones Case: Citing a “lack of candor,” including over the Infowars fabulist’s lavish spending, the judge ordered substantive changes to his company’s oversight.

WATERBURY, Conn. — A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston ordered new personnel to oversee the bankruptcy of Alex Jones’s Infowars late on Tuesday, citing an ongoing lack of transparency, including over Mr. Jones’s lavish personal spending.

Judge Christopher Lopez dismissed Mr. Jones’s attorney and chief restructuring officer in the bankruptcy of Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, and expanded the duties of a Department of Justice-appointed trustee already monitoring the case. The judge authorized the trustee to hire additional legal and other help, specifying that any new hires must have “no connection to any of these cases,” he said, citing a need to investigate “insider relationships.”

“There has to be greater transparency in this case,” Judge Lopez said during the hearing on Tuesday, pointing to concerns with spending and other disclosures on the part of the company, which is run by Mr. Jones. “Without transparency, people lose faith in the process,” he added, referring to the federal bankruptcy system.

PEN America report shows Florida has 2nd highest number of school-related book bans

"A teacher can't give a child an aspirin without the parent's permission yet we can give them this smut and encourage them to be sexually active," said Keith Flaugh, co-founder of the alliance. "The obscenity statutes are pretty clear that this material is in violation of Florida obscenity statutes for minors."

The alliance is responsible for bans in school districts in Jackson, Orange, St. Lucie, Polk and Walton counties, according to PEN America.

It also is responsible for advisory labels placed on 115 books in the Collier County School District that contain LGBTQ+ characters, transgender characters, characters of color and sexual content.

Flaugh said the word "ban" is misleading and prefers the word "prohibit" be used instead.

"It's an incendiary word that doesn't represent what we're talking about," Flaugh said. "We're talking about protecting the innocence of children and safety. This is really about protecting our children and keeping the harmful materials from them just like we do drugs and cigarettes."

Pretty impressive. They've gotten the messaging from their funders and organizers about how to set the terms of the argument. "Never Play Defense," etc.

Also, you "prefer" certain other words be used instead of the actually correct ones? Sounds like pretty cucked feelings>>>facts behavior to me.

Funny timing on that. Our local rep., who's managed to get kicked out his own GOP caucus because he's such an embarrassment, ran a clickbait live stream about a "pornographic book available to 14 year-olds at public school" at the same time as our school board meeting last night. When he gets to the big reveal of his stream, he botches the name of the book, admits he's never read it, then shows two hand-drawn images accompanying the story of a child going through gender identity challenges.

These state-level MAGA nutters are definitely working in coordination, because they're too stupid to come up with all this "material" on their own. And their playbook is all the same. Attack, attack, attack, never explain, never apologize, and never admit the truth.

Senior citizens tour bus on Cape Cod chased by officer who thinks they're migrants sent by DeSantis

"He thought there were immigrants on the bus," Vaughn said. "He was totally wrong."

How dare they apply laws to us old white folks!! It is outrageous that we would be treated like....them!

So an off-duty Guard Lt Col decides to take the law into his own hands and dangerously follow a bus he assumed was full of immigrants. He even pushed his onto the bus only to be confronted with irate elderly black women. He wasn't arrested for reckless driving though he was detained. I think his ass is grass with the Army but there should be criminal consequences as well.

Nevin73 wrote:

So an off-duty Guard Lt Col decides to take the law into his own hands and dangerously follow a bus he assumed was full of immigrants. He even pushed his onto the bus only to be confronted with irate elderly black women. He wasn't arrested for reckless driving though he was detained. I think his ass is grass with the Army but there should be criminal consequences as well.

"You're interfering with my tour," Vaughn can be heard saying.

"I want to see what's going on," Hoffman, who was not in a uniform, said.

"It's none of your business what's going on," Vaughn said.

"I have every right as a U.S citizen to see what's going on," Hoffman said. "You know what I'm talking about."

Ah, the ole "I'm a White Man and you must justify yourself to me" routine.

Welcome to Trumplandia.

15-year-old killed in Hesperia shootout was likely unarmed as she ran toward deputies, report says

The Fontana teenager killed this week alongside her father in a shootout with law enforcement in Hesperia was likely unarmed as she ran toward deputies, according to a new report.

The preliminary findings are a result of an investigation that's been turned over to the California attorney general's office, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Citing an email from the attorney general's office, the Times reported the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department notified the California Department of Justice that the deadly shooting could qualify under AB 1506. The law requires the justice department to investigate cases in which "the death to the unarmed civilian is caused by a California peace officer."

In a 39-second video posted on social media Wednesday, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said that evidence suggested 15-year-old Savannah Graziano was "a participant in shooting at our deputies." Dicus did not provide further specific details in the video.

Cops always lie to cover their asses, what else is new?

Meanwhile, in the Georgia senate race....

(And mind you, Christian Walker's been doing BIG TIME Conservative Online influencer stuff so far.)

All of this, and if he loses, it'll probably be within a percentage point. He still has every chance of winning.

As someone else pointed out, that the GOP let a man with Walker's baggage and all of his mental health issues run as a Senate candidate tells you all you need to know about their priorities.

Prederick wrote:

Meanwhile, in the Georgia senate race....

(And mind you, Christian Walker's been doing BIG TIME Conservative Online influencer stuff so far.)

All of this, and if he loses, it'll probably be within a percentage point. He still has every chance of winning.

As someone else pointed out, that the GOP let a man with Walker's baggage and all of his mental health issues run as a Senate candidate tells you all you need to know about their priorities.

I'm up way too late but trying to see the Try Guys connection to Georgia's senate race and faaaailing

Chairman_Mao wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Meanwhile, in the Georgia senate race....

(And mind you, Christian Walker's been doing BIG TIME Conservative Online influencer stuff so far.)

All of this, and if he loses, it'll probably be within a percentage point. He still has every chance of winning.

As someone else pointed out, that the GOP let a man with Walker's baggage and all of his mental health issues run as a Senate candidate tells you all you need to know about their priorities.

I'm up way too late but trying to see the Try Guys connection to Georgia's senate race and faaaailing

Guessing it was supposed to be a link to either Walker paying for a girlfriend's abortion or Walker's son accusing him of violence

Chairman_Mao wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Meanwhile, in the Georgia senate race....

(And mind you, Christian Walker's been doing BIG TIME Conservative Online influencer stuff so far.)

All of this, and if he loses, it'll probably be within a percentage point. He still has every chance of winning.

As someone else pointed out, that the GOP let a man with Walker's baggage and all of his mental health issues run as a Senate candidate tells you all you need to know about their priorities.

I'm up way too late but trying to see the Try Guys connection to Georgia's senate race and faaaailing

Clearly Ned cheated on his wife with Walker.

Lol. Trump's lawsuit against CNN hinges on the use of the term "Big Lie".

I am sure the CNN legal staff are licking their chops and ready to get him to finally sit for a deposition and repeat his bullsh*t under oath.

Financial damages? Oooh, about that. Let's see your financials.

Emotional damages? Oooh, about that. Let's get your mental health history.

Paleocon wrote:

Lol. Trump's lawsuit against CNN hinges on the use of the term "Big Lie".

I am sure the CNN legal staff are licking their chops and ready to get him to finally sit for a deposition and repeat his bullsh*t under oath.

Financial damages? Oooh, about that. Let's see your financials.

Emotional damages? Oooh, about that. Let's get your mental health history.

Let's hope CNN corporate sticks it to Trump, rather than go more "fair and balanced", like their news room is under their new CEO.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

I'm up way too late but trying to see the Try Guys connection to Georgia's senate race and faaaailing

LOL, f*ck.

The link should've been this.

Will the Onion save democracy (or at least protect satire?)

The Onion files Supreme Court amicus brief defending the right to parody

The Onion — a satirical publication known for poking fun at everything from popular culture to global politics — is taking a stab at a serious issue. On Monday, it filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of an Ohio man who faced criminal charges over a Facebook page parodying his local police department.

Anthony Novak, an amateur comic from Parma, a Cleveland suburb, was arrested and briefly jailed after creating a fake social media page in 2016 styled after the Parma Police Department’s Facebook page. His lawyers argue it was an obvious parody, and he was acquitted at trial.

Novak subsequently filed a civil suit alleging his constitutional rights were violated, though that was dismissed after a federal appeals court granted the police officers qualified immunity — a legal doctrine that protects government officials from being sued for allegedly violating civil rights. “There’s no recognized right to be free from a retaliatory arrest that is supported by probable cause,” the appellate judges ruled.

Now, Novak is petitioning the Supreme Court to take up his case.

True to form, the supporting brief filed by the Onion’s lawyers Monday takes a satirical approach in its bid to get the nation’s top court to consider Novak’s petition. It starts with an outlandishly false claim that the Onion is “the world’s leading news publication,” with a “daily readership of 4.3 trillion” that has “grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history.”

The Onion created lovable ‘Diamond Joe’ Biden. Then it destroyed him.

Despite the sarcasm and hyperbole, the legal brief isn’t a joke. The publication’s aim is to get the Supreme Court to scrutinize qualified immunity and free speech rights. (Amicus briefs are documents filed by parties not directly involved in a case to provide the court with additional information.)

“The Onion cannot stand idly by in the face of a ruling that threatens to disembowel a form of rhetoric that has existed for millennia, that is particularly potent in the realm of political debate, and that, purely incidentally, forms the basis of The Onion’s writers’ paychecks,” the brief says.

It also highlights what the Onion suggests are shortcomings in the legal system when it comes to protecting those who use comedy to question people in positions of authority.

“The Onion regularly pokes its finger in the eyes of repressive and authoritarian regimes, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, and domestic presidential administrations,” the brief says. “So The Onion’s professional parodists were less than enthralled to be confronted with a legal ruling that fails to hold government actors accountable for jailing and prosecuting a would-be humorist simply for making fun of them.”

According to Novak’s lawyers, police obtained a warrant for his arrest over a fake Facebook page that mocked the department. The page in question was up for only about 12 hours before Novak took it down after law enforcement threatened a criminal investigation. They searched his apartment, seized his electronics and charged him with a felony under an Ohio law that criminalizes using a computer to “disrupt” police operations.

Novak’s petition calls on the Supreme Court to decide whether officials can claim qualified immunity when they arrest someone based purely on speech. It also asks the justices to do away with the doctrine altogether.

The Onion didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on its legal brief. The Parma police officials named in the brief couldn’t be immediately reached for comment, and the city’s legal department did not immediately return requests for comment overnight Monday. Andrew Wimer, a spokesman for the Institute for Justice, the civil rights law nonprofit that is representing Novak, described the Onion brief as “both humorous and very serious.”

“If the police can use their authority to arrest their critics without consequence, everyone’s rights are at risk,” the institute said in a statement.

If the onion helps get rid of qualified immunity... Wow